All Saints Day 2013

It was our first time to visit our son’s grave on All Saints Day yesterday. I can’t exactly describe the mixed feelings I felt. I wanted be sad but somehow I managed to be cool and okay. After visiting the graves of our other departed loved ones and family friends in Makati and in Bacoor, I just busied myself at home for the rest of the day. I cooked, washed the dishes, read books, and played with our neighbor’s lovely kitten that likes to stay on her heated cat bed all the time. Okay, make that just a plain cat bed. But seriously, that kitten is so adorable and makes me think of having one in our home, too!

Watching the TV by nighttime proved to be a sort of treat. The news featured Filipinos from all walks of life visiting the graves of their departed loved ones at the many cemeteries of Metro Manila. Most of these cemeteries were jampacked with people and it really showed just how loving and thoughtful we are as a people.

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Setting Up a Budget for Christmas Shopping

I’ve always believed in budgeting. Setting up a budget may be easy, but sticking to it is hard. When shopping for Christmas, it is very important to allot a particular budget so you don’t overspend, or worse, don’t get to buy all the items in your gift list.

Compared with last year’s budget, I have less money to spend for Christmas gifts this year. Why? Because 2013 is the year we vowed to reduce our debts, and I think we succeeded in doing so though we still have to clear out a few more next year. This means I will have to rely on my expertise when it comes to budget shopping. Haha.

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Birthday Wishes

To the man I chose to marry, may you continue to work with me towards a beautiful marriage filled with love, respect, faith and commitment.

To the man I chose to be my life partner, may you continue to share my values, ideals, goals and dreams. Together, let’s live simply and meaningfully and without regrets. Let’s believe that just like in fairy tales, we’ll have our own happily-ever-after ending, too.

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Videoke is so Pinoy

Filipinos, in general, love to sing. We sing when we’re happy, we sing when we’re sad. We sing if we have a nice voice, we sing even if we’re out-of-tune. We just love to sing for our family and friends. Sometimes, we sing just to hear our voice singing. Haha.

Videoke is a favorite pastime of many Pinoys. In fact, videoke sessions make for a great bonding activity especially when there are food and alcoholic drinks involved. If before, videoke singing could only be done in videoke bars, now it can be done almost anywhere as long as there is a monitor, a microphone and a couple of music CDs/DVDs.

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Meatless Meals Last Holy Week

While I didn’t fast during the Holy Week unlike our other Christian brothers, I made an effort to refrain from drinking alcohol and eating meat. And so did the hubby. Keeping ourselves away from alcohol was easy because we’re not really into drinking, in the first place. Keeping away from meat was another thing because we are self-confessed carnivores. It was a good thing we fully understood the significance of the atonement of Jesus. Thus, we had meatless meals on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

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our meatless dinner on Maundy Thursday

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Visita Iglesia 2013

I’m so glad we pushed thru our plan to visit Cavite-based churches for our Visita Iglesia this year. We checked out a total of seven churches located in five different places: Bacoor, Imus, Dasmariñas, Silang and Tagaytay. Aside from the heavy traffic we encountered on our way to Tagaytay Rotonda and on our way home from Tagaytay, everything turned out fine.

After our fourth church, we had a late, meatless lunch at a Chowking store in Tagaytay. We also bought some fresh pineapples and other goodies from the roadside stalls. It was a long day for us but definitely very meaningful and fun. By the way, I was with the hubby and his family. My entire family was in Manila having their own Holy Week celebration. But the hubby and I headed back to Manila earlier than planned. I was able to meet with my family on Black Saturday and we heard mass together on Easter Sunday.

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