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Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

I spent my first Christmas away from home all alone. Last year, I got to spend Christmas with my family. And this year, I spent it again away from home, not all alone now but with ~~my friends~~ my second family.

One year ago today, I was all in tears. My heart breaks with even just the thought of not being able to celebrate Christmas with my family for the first time (read more about it here :p). But I promised to be home.

And now, a year after, I am more than happy to be finally home! I am overjoyed that I'm spending the holidays with my family. Yay!

I am so glad to be home! I must admit though that it would have been perfect if Mark is also here with me. Hmmm...who knows? Maybe we'll be back in Christmas 2016?! InshaAllah! :D

Merry Christmas everyone!!! :)

sweetnothings.kriskamarie

@kriskamarie

December 24, 2014. It's the day before Christmas. My day has just started while more than half a day has already passed back in the Philippines.

Christmas 2013 with my family back in the Philippines

I've just finished my breakfast and I'm preparing for my lunch as I write this post, while I'm sure my household back home is now busy preparing for tonight's Noche Buena.

I'm living alone away from home, Mark and I won't be seeing each other until the weekend, both my flatmates are out on vacation, add the fact that I'm in a country who doesn't celebrate Christmas, so it's a bit of a struggle, no, make that it's definitely a struggle, for me to get through today.

And even just going through some old Christmas photos is giving me tears. And yes, I am missing home, big time!

It's my parents' 31st Wedding Anniversary yesterday and we celebrated it by having a simple dinner at home. I was supposed to make a cake, but because we still have some leftover cake from Father's Day, I just decided to make some brownies for my mom and dad.

Choco Dulce de Leche Brownies

I made chocolate fudge brownies with walnuts and cashew nuts and then decided to make it a little more special by adding some dark chocolate and dulce de leche drizzle. :D

Here's a simple animation for a special person like you! :D

Animation and Editing by Gia, Illustration by Kriska :)

Now that Halloween's over, it's time to get started and prepare for Christmas. While the rest of the households still have some skeletons, witches, bats, and jack-o'-lanterns hanging in their walls and backyards, ours already have garlands, ribbons, metallic balls, poinsettias, and sparkling lights. Yup, in as early as October, our home is already geared up and ready for the Christmas season, and for my daddy's birthday of course!

We celebrate daddy's birthday either on the day of his birthday (October 30) or the day after (October 31), and we don't really celebrate Halloween in our household, so mommy starts to decorate the house in as early as the 3rd week of October.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!! :)

Had three simple yet super meaningful, memorable, and fun celebrations last Christmas 2011.

Christmas with TamTam
Weeks before Christmas, I was already telling Mark about how I wanted to start with a yearly "Christmas Project" just like what my good friend Je usually does. And I was very glad when she asked me if I can be part of her "Christmas with TamTam" project. And so during the morning of Christmas Eve, we made Christmas happen for TamTam. :) It was really a memorable experience for me. No words can explain how happy we all were knowing that we made TamTam happy. :) I just can't wait for our next project!

Photo grabbed from jE's AnAtOmY
Read full story HERE

Christmas Eve at Home
We don't usually prepare for Noche Buena on Christmas Eve, since our boys (mine and Gia's) come over during Christmas Eve and leave at around 9pm to celebrate Christmas Eve with their own families, what we usually do is have Christmas Eve dinner together. Here are what we feasted on during our Christmas Eve dinner:

Spaghetti

Fried Chicken

Lechon Kawali

Embotido

Kare-kare

Adobong Pusit

Grapes and Kiat-kiat

Fruit Salad

Chicken Macaroni Salad

Potato Salad

Hizon's Chocolate Cake

Mark was down with sore throat and fever, so he had no choice but to stay for the night. I was a bit sad since he was sick but happy as well because it was the first time that we will be welcoming Christmas together. :p

Sick on Christmas Eve :(

Good thing Mark felt better a few hours after I took care of him. :) While waiting for midnight, we killed time by having some videoke. Come midnight, we just had some snacks after the opening of gifts. :)

Christmas Lunch at Project 4
After hearing mass, we went to Project 4 for our Christmas lunch. :) We brought some of the food from our Christmas Eve dinner and daddy added a few dishes more.

Adobong Pusit

Chicken Macaroni Salad

Fresh Lumpia

Dolora's Pancit Malabon

Bopis

Lumpiang Shanghai

Pipian

Roasted Chicken

Tita Tess also prepared some food for our Christmas feast.

Caldereta

Kare-kare

After lunch, we had some gift giving and some more rounds of videoke. :) Though not too extravagant, I really enjoyed our Christmas celebration because one, I know I was able to make someone happy, and two, I got to celebrate this special occasion with the ones I love. :)