Early Christmas Shopping

The past few months have been a blur of spending -- not on wants and luxuries but on definite needs. While it hasn't been easy, we're grateful that we were able to go through this difficult time, at least on the financial front.

This means, however, that we do not have a lot of money left in savings. We're taking it one day at a time. But since it's less than 100 days till Christmas, we do need to look for a way to save AND for affordable gifts for people on our (very) long Christmas list.

I found some online coupons that could be used to purchase some great gifts online, at a discount, of course. There are plenty of choices online. I'd love to get my son some Lego toys (which could be had for 50% off with coupons) since they encourage creativity. My daughter...hmmm, perhaps Stuffed Animals would be appreciated? I'm still looking around for the best choices and the best deals, not just for my kids, but also for my husband and the rest of my family. And our inaanaks too. Quality gifts at great deals, that would be such a treat for me!

Last Christmas...

...was unbelievably busy. And money-draining too! That's the problem with self-employed individuals like doctors, we only get paid if and when we see patients, and since our clinic is closed, we can't see patients at all!

I got invited to numerous Christmas parties, but I only attended a few (maybe only 3) during the whole season because my evening sickness was at its peak.

Oh well, Christmas is still a happy season, and with a very energetic 3 year old dynamo (who gave his parents no rest at all), it was a riot! He could already appreciate things related to the Christmas season, including Christmas songs, Christmas lights, Baby Jesus, Santa Claus, gift opening, Christmas tree! It's just so much more fun to experience Christmas through a child's eye.

The start of January 2009, though, was not very good for us. My mom had an accident and had to undergo hip replacement surgery. Will blog about this in a separate post.

Right now, what the family is looking forward to is the Chinese New Year. I'm teaching my son to say "Kiong Hee Huat Tsay..." It's a pity my mom would not be able to attend the Chinese New Year's dinner at my grandmother's house since she still has difficulty moving around.

Coffee Break 1,45 And A Christmas Survey

Christmas is in the air!

For us Filipinos, Christmas is probably the most important holiday of the year. We start thinking Christmas after all soul's day has gone. We buy gifts for almost everyone we know. We attend parties. We eat to our heart's content! We decorate our homes.

In line with this, Jan asks in this week's coffee break:

My reply:

• My budget - If I don't have extra money to burn, I'll have to go with less expensive gifts, or give less people
  
• Age and gender of the recipient
  
• My relationship with the recipient - Of course, the closer the person is to me, the more likely he or she will be on my Christmas list.
  
• My situation at the time - Chinese custom dictates that mourning families should not give gifts and other people should understand about it. The year my dad died, we didn't give any gifts because, although we were following tradition, the truth is that nobody was in the mood for Christmas shopping.
  

I've made another post on my other blog about my tips for people who have a long Christmas list.

In line with Christmas, Dneero also has a survey on this. Here goes:

Black Friday

Christmas is still a long way off, but savvy shoppers plan ahead. The Christmas season is the time when a lot of people spend lots of money on gifts. While we would want to give nice gifts that would make the recipient happy, there is no denying that we are oftentimes limited by the time that we have for shopping and the budget that we can set aside.

Traditionally Black Friday, or the Friday after Thanksgiving, usually kicks off the Christmas gift buying season, at least in the USA. Lots of stores give deep discounts. A lot of people start their Christmas shopping during this time, especially since they get better deals. For black friday 2008, savvy shoppers search online and sign up for email alerts so that they get good deals ahead of everybody else, and even buy them online. This makes shopping so much easier!

It also makes searching for the right gift easier since I believe it's easier to just sit in front of the mouse and search for good gifts for one person on one site rather than go through a lot of different stores with the whole crowd looking for gifts for your whole Christmas list.

The "COD Christmas Display"

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY!

This is just a quick post....

If you still have a Christmas season hangover and haven't already seen it, why not head over to Greenhills Shopping Center to check out the "COD Christmas Display" near the night market? It begins at 6:30 pm. I'm not sure when the run will end, though, but it's a safe bet that it probably won't last past the Feast of the Three Kings.

My son thoroughly enjoyed it. It's free entertainment. It's technology from the 70's (when the display was still in the COD department store) but it's still very nice!

Of course, you may still end up spending because the night market is just beside it, as well as several food stalls :P.

My son the party animal!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we are making the rounds of Christmas parties. In a few of those, my son was also invited. After an initial getting-to-know-you-and-warming-up stage, he pulled quite a few antics!

During the videoke session during my aunt's party, he sang louder than the person wielding the microphone! It's a pity we didn't have our camera with us at that time. I'm hoping my uncle took some pics so that I can ask for them.

Last night, at another party, he suddenly danced to the strains of a popular dance song! Everybody was surprised, us included! He was the one who started the dancing! Pity we didn't bring the videocam, but my husband did take some stills. I'll try to post them later. :)

Oh, for those who don't know yet, my son is 2 years old!

The Christmas Party Rounds....

The past few days have been a whirl of Christmas parties. I am a visiting consultant in 2 hospitals and an active consultants in 2 clinics, so that's already 4 parties that I have to make an appearance in. That doesn't include the parties by family members and friends. :) Oh, and of course, there's the n@w Christmas party, which is actually the first Christmas party I've attended this year.

Together with my (still) regular clinic schedule, that does not really leave with too much time to do blogging lately. :)

Next week, my son's yaya is going for a vacation -- and I'm not sure if she's coming back. Good luck to me if I can squeeze in the time for blogging...I'm sure I can, but that will probably be in the wee small hours of the morning, when the boys (little boy and his daddy) are already asleep :).

Just in case, I don't get to greet you all on the day itself, I'd like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

The N@W Christmas Party :)

Yesterday, the four of us (hubby, little boy, yaya and me) all went to the N@W Christmas party. This is my first time to attend a N@W party and we really really really had fun!

The food was plentiful! Since it was potlock, many brought in different foods, from rice to ulam to desserts to drinks. May balut pa nga! Galing! There was even a dessert bar by Sweet Tooth and and 2 Alex Franco cakes! Yum, yum!

Oh, and there was the squid ball/kikiam cart by Apple and Adrian! They had to leave early though, so the ones who came later probably didn't get to taste their treats.

There were prizes galore! In fact, I think everyone gets a prize, whether or not they joined the games. Sobrang dami talaga!

Oh, and 2 photo stations! 1 is by the wishing well with John Aguas. Gosh! I've heard of the man but I've never actually met him so I didn't know that the one taking our pictures was actually a well known photographer! The other station was the Fotoloco booth by Meme of Konsepto. Our family had a blast having our picture taken with Santa hats from Bumblebee! Well, actually, only my husband and I wore the hats, Ethan didn't. The pictures were instantly printed out and made into a nice bookmark! What a nice memento! The photographer who went around taking pictures of everyone was Nald, Neri's hubby. Neri has the link to the pics. We enjoyed ourselves too much to take our own pics! :D

The place was just right for the number of people who came. It was at the Pavilion at the McKinley Park of North Greenhills. The Pavilion was just beside the basketball court and the garden with a koi pond. The kids kept going back to the pond to look at the fishes and the turtle. With the cool December breeze, it was not hot at all, even if there was no aircon. It was decorated with balloons like a Kiddie Party :). I think it was Pepel who made the decors. She was also the organizer AND the host for the party.

And there was the amazing unicyclist, a Mr. Velasco (his first name escapes me at the moment) brought in by Jhoanne. Grabe! We were holding our breath and couldn't help shouting when it seems that he would lose his balance and fall...which he didn't :)

There are several rounds of exchange gifts. One for the yayas, 3 for the kids (classified by age group) and 1 for the n@wies. The last one was the most interesting, since you could actually GRAB the gift that somebody else already got. I got a bath care set from Raquel. Thank you, thank you! My son got a Tazmanian Devil towel set, which he really needs....too bad I don't know who to thank for that, but still, thanks! My yaya also got a mirror to go with her other prize (a comb), but we also don't know who to thank for that. I hope the recipients of our gifts also like what they got :)

There are 3 sets of lootbags - 1 for the kids, 1 for the yayas and 1 for the n@wies. We're very proud that we sponsored the natural insect repellant and liniment samples included in the lootbags. We hope that everybody finds good use for them. The other items in the lootbags (Unilab products like phcare and Celeteque) were sponsored by Lissa.

Of course, the most enjoyable aspect about everything is knowing the people behind the names. You see each other's names almost on a daily basis and now, here's finally a chance to really MEET them! Of course, special mention to Benz and John, without whom there would be no w@w and no n@w, the thriving online community to which we all belong to!

Here's wishing everybody a Merry Christmas! I hope we have another party like that next year and that more people join!

Remembering

I attended the "babang luksa" of my uncle and cousins. I really miss them. They were fatalities of the devastating tsunami that hit Phuket, where they were spending their Christmas holiday. My uncle was 44, my cousins were 13 and 10. Sometimes life really seems so unfair, that good, innocent people have to die so suddenly and under dire circumstances. My consolation is that they are most likely in a much better place right now. It does not stop me from wishing that they were still alive. It's really hard to believe they are gone, even after 2years. Deep down, I know Im still mourning.