catching up series: new year + first sunday

We're done with Christmas and now it's New Year on the blog. If we spent Christmas in my cousin's house, for New Year, they were the ones to visit us. See? There's just no way we'd spend special occasions separately. 

As usual, we had a longer NYE than Christmas Eve. Kuya Ga just wouldn't give up his traditional fireworks display. Even if life is a little more difficult now, at ang mahal ng fireworks, he really sees to it that we have a little something for New Year. One funny thing while we were watching the fireworks this year, we suddenly can't find my niece, Faye. I kept on looking for her while taking the video. Turned out, tumawid sa kapitbahay. Haha! She's not allowed to do that just yet so we panicked. But it's adorable how she wants to make friends with our neighbors. At such a young age, we can tell that she's into socializing. Napaka-friendly nya! I even saw one of her drawings featuring two young girls with the caption, "Be a friendly girl". I know, right? She's only six!

Oops, wait! What are we talking about again? Hahaha! I got a little carried away sharing how nice and sociable my niece is. Stage aunt forever. Hahaha! Anyway, let's go back. After watching the fireworks, it was time for Media Noche. Everything was traditional, actually. Including our food. I am actually looking forward to the next holiday season because we are planning to spend it differently -- probably stay in a hotel or go out of town. Maiba naman! We've been spending the holiday season traditionally since forever. Check these out: Christmas 2011 - New Year 2012, Christmas 2012 - New Year 2013, Christmas 2013 - New Year 2014, Christmas 2014 - New Year 2015, and finally, Christmas 2015. Woww! So nice to be able to look back to all those years through this blog. I really should say that although blogging is tedious, it's so rewarding whenever you browse through your own blog and look back. Nakakatuwa lang talaga. As my line goes, I have a penchant for documenting life. :)

What's nice about this New Year is that we got to take photos. Unlike during Christmas na nagkainisan kami ng nanay ko. Hahaha! And now Mithy's bigger. She was just a tiny baby with no reactions whatsoever last New Year and now, she gets to devour lumpia all by herself. Hehehe! Plus I have to say that it's so entertaining to watch Avie and Mithy interact. Avie is two while Mithy is one so they're really playmates. Checkout the photo below where Mithy tried to take Avie's pacifier so Avie bit the pier hard. Gigil na gigil sya sa pagkagat just so wag maagaw. Hahaha!

waiting for midnight

ate Faye's new found friend

Mithy versus lumpia hahaha!

pito and the kiddos ❤️

ate Faye was the first to doze off

the photo I've been telling about
this is just so cute in my eyesss ❤️

MIA: the fatsoo sister

Sucks though that this is the first New Year that we're not complete 'cause the fat sister decided not to show up. She was MIA too when we attended the year's first Sunday mass. Even Dana wasn't able to make it 'cause she had to go back to her dorm for school responsibilities. School sucks! Hehehe! Kidding, of course not. 

So we visited Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto to say our thanks for blessing us with another year to spend with each other as a family. We're extra grateful for having Mithy with us now. Iba talaga when you have a baby in your family. I'm sure you will all agree. They bring so much positivity and joy without them even knowing. Hayy.  As usual, we had to cap off the day with taking photos. Mithy was just learning to stand on her own then so I was extra giddy to take photos of her by herself. We were lucky to chance upon my mom's students too so we had a bonus family photo. Hehehe! Even that is a blessing by itself. God's simple surprises. ❤️

lookie, she's on her own!

cover photo worthy ❤️

always extra excited with their first apo ❤️

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catching up series: to remind me of the holidays

The bad: we're still playing catch up here; The good: we've reached as far as the Christmas season. Yahooo! Konting kembot na lang, Borbonita! Hehe! Anyway, nothing much for today. No random thoughts, I promise. Just a ton of photos to remind me of the season that was. 

First off, Christmas! Looking at the photos, we obviously chose green as the color of the night. Wala eh! Gustuhin ko mang isikreto yung theme, parang di kakayanin. Hahaha! Kidding aside, we actually take pride in our family kakornihan. Here's a rundown: Christmas 2010, it was orange; New Year 2011, prints & polka, Christmas 2011, red; New Year 2012, polka dots again {with matching spray paint, spray paint pa!}, didn't have a theme Christmas 2012 but we made up for it New Year 2013 by wearing customized "Incrediborbs" shirts; and then finally Christmas 2013, red again. Haha! Can you see how much we take the holidays seriously? Remind me to suggest blue this coming Christmas, alright?

Going back, the past Christmas was extra special for us 'cause it was Mithril's first. She was barely one month old then. Mom and I were just talking recently about how happier the next holiday season would be because by then Mitmit's probably walking & talking already. Ahh, the joy that baby brings EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! I can't even begin to explain.

meet my family {for the nth time}

my brother, her girlfraan & mithy

my cousin's little family

the difference age can do. haha!

with granny loves

our boys and their tummies :P

New Year 2015 -- our most blah New Year to date. Yags {my cousin} still had his annual "fireworks display", props to his consistency. On the other hand, I once again took the liberty of recording it. I've been doing the same for three straight years already {2013, 2014, 2015} and I was actually wondering why no one else would take the role when I obviously suck at my job. Hahaha! I mean, have you heard me shriek?

our only NYE photo

Anyway, I said blah. Yep, 'cause we almost didn't eat for Media Noche. I was the first one to leave for my room 'cause I wasn't feeling well and come morning, I found out that they slept early too. Boo! We felt like our New Year was a failure so we thought of doing something different on the next days. And with different, I mean playing basagan ng itlog, pinoy henyo, pabitin and palayok in our living room. Hahaha! I have yet to personally know a family as bizarre as us.

I contemplated not writing this in detail but we might look back at this in the future and argue about the results so..

Basagan ng Itlog. Originally, this should be a game for the couples but my niece insisted that we join. Also, we weren't able to convince the old guy aka our father to look silly with us so Dana became his replacement. Long story short, the partners were: mommy & daddy {ate Tin & Yags}, Gigi & Marisse, Mama and Dana, and finally Faye and myself. Guess who won? Yep! Faye and I along with mommy & daddy. Faye kept pressuring me the whole time 'cause apparently the little one isn't so good at accepting loss.

let the basagan ng itlog commence haha!

Pinoy Henyo. By virtue of palabunutan, the partners were: daddy & Faye, Dana & Anit, Marisse & mama, mommy & gigi and finally, papi & I. We were the last pair to be called and everyone burst into laughter. It's just odd for papi to accommodate such silliness so my case seemed like a misfortune. True enough, I wasn't able to guess the word which was alakalakan for crying out loud. Turned out papi thought it was the tagalog word for adam's apple so he kept on touching his throat. Hahaha! Mandadaya pa sana ang mahal kong ama. :P I was confused the whole time 'cause the audience was hinting "paa" but then papi had a world of his own. Needless to say, it was the highlight of the game. Dana and Anit {and also Faye 'cause she said so} emerged as champs.

faye's winning moment x daddy's confusion

Pabitin. Can we not talk about it? Hahaha! I'll let the video below do most of the talking but the highlights were (1) I GOT NOTHING. Can you believe that?! {I bet you can. Haha!} (2) Dana only got one but it was the major prize. Like it was 10,000 pesosss! Kidding! It was only P50. Hahahaha! (3) Mommy was monstrous. Hehe! I mean, mommy got the most number of angpao. (4) And lastly, Faye cried. Hahaha! Humagulgol and bata bilang wala rin syang nakuha. I could have done the same, srsly. :P

Basagan Palayok.  Of course we let Faye try it first and when she wasn't able to break it, we resorted yet again to bunutan to decide our faith. Luck was on Dana, she was the next to try. POK! Basag ang palayok. Hehehe! But knowing her, I'm pretty sure dinaya nya kami. So anyway, after the pot was broken, we killed each other for the moolah that came from it. Again, mommy was unforgiving.

As obvious as it is, Dana and mommy were the biggest winners. We had to pacify the little one though by telling her that everything mommy got was actually hers too. Funny kid! On my end, no one provided me the solace I need. I guess the pabitin tragedy will haunt me forever. Hahaha!

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well, hello there, 2014

We tried our best to be more prepared for New Year than we were for Christmas. My sisters and I even rehearsed the outfits we will be donning few days before the 31st, assigning who will use what. Yags was punctual as ever. He bought fireworks for his traditional pasikat {peace, Yags! :P} weeks earlier. Also, we expected there will be more food in our table because heeyy, it would be too much if we will be bringing another family member to the hospital on the next holiday eve. No waaaay!

So much for preparing, we ended up pissing each other morning of 31. Kanya-kanyang kaaway lang and two ended up crying and locking themselves up in their respective rooms. Ewan ko kung sino yung mga yun ha.. basta ako, hindi iyakin. Hahaha! ✌ But all's well that ends well, we were back as a happy family by midnight.

We started the celebration with Yags' traditional fireworks display. I initiated to take the video just like last year but this time, I did a better job. Maniwala naman kayo, please. I no longer cut the videos into ten parts, however, I missed to catch the finale this time as I thought it's over already. Good thing Yags took a video as well, perhaps he anticipated that I'd screw it up again. Hehehe. Anyway, enjoy the vid below. I edited it to only show the highlights plus I added a background music. Yeess, marunong na akooo!

Post by Apple Borbon.

I had to resort to this 'cause Blogger just won't let me upload the video.

We weren't able to take photos outside 'cause they weren't dressed up. They didn't have the time to do so 'cause the family only kissed and made up in time for the fireworks display. No photos too during Media Noche for that same reason. Boo!! Although, we had a pretty good Media Noche. I love mommy's kaldereta and papi's lechon kawali the most. Gaahh, I'm getting hungry.

After Media Noche, I tried to convince them to dress up so we can take photos but they were either too tired or just plain lazy. Or may hangover pa ng sumpong? So, I literally forced Dana to look decent for the camera and finally, I succeeded. Surprisingly, papi joined us too. Now I know where I got my always-game-except-pag-may-sumpong-din genes. Haha!

with ze father ❤

our retard bunso :*

Next, Dana and I bugged Gigi and Yags to light a fountain at the back of our house. It's been a tradition too but we failed to do it last year. Must be the reason behind the family's poor health the past months, huh? Also, it was my first time to ever hold a lusis so I was both thrilled and nervous at the same time. Ang saya pala! Hahaha! It was a bonus that I loved how the photos turned out. Yags took them and yours truly edited them using an android app and tadaaahh.. my favorites snaps from New Year.

shoo-ing all bad things away

Afternoon of January 1st, I extended the New Year celebration together with two of my closest friends, Jhov and Tin. They visited me no matter how far my crib is. Aww. 2013 made me feel really blessed in the friendship department and 2014 seems to be doing just the same. We spent the day making our tummies happy like we always do. Of course, there's kwentuhan and kulitan too. But what I missed the most was none other than the bugbugan sessions with Tin. We met couple of times the past year but we weren't able to visit each other's houses, hence, we had nowhere to kill each other. Hahaha! The girl left me wounded, FYI. She's monstrous. ✌

Tin & Faye

There's also this funny story involving Jhov and a certain turtle neck top but her anger that day was more than enough. But really, just thinking about it makes me giggle inside. You know, I luh you, Jhov! :P

Anyway, thanks again girls. And oh, thank you Tin for ze ice cream treat. I shall see the two of you again soon. Happy 2014!! :*

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nothing like the holidays

Oh it's the love month! I see. How about a blog post about the holidays? Haha! Forgive me guys, you know how I got so preoccupied last month - my resignation, moving out of the condo, meeting friends before I hibernate, and of course, blogging about Boracay! Long list, didn't I tell you? So if you'd allow me, here's a post on.. my holidaaayyss! Yaayyy! So appropriate. :) 

Let's begin with Christmas parties.. I only got to attend two. Three supposedly but at some point I decided not to attend our project's western-themed party. Let's just say I wasn't in the mood to dress up. No, scratch that, I really didn't want to attend. Period.

So I only got to attend our team's party and a simple 'badjao' get together. Our team's Christmas party was held in.. a.. uhmm.. conference roommm! Yeeyy! But at least it was the first time that our team {test team} and the dev team had a joint celebration. It was a little awkward but fun nevertheless. The best part though was that we had mango bravo. Yes, the popular cake from Conti's. I want I want I want!!

mango bravo is love ♥

exchange gifts

dev and ku-yu-ey

I currently do not have photos of our badjao get together but I'll upload some as soon as I get them. It was really simple - chips, exchange gifts, cards, killers {I mean the game}. I wasn't feeling well that night and became really sick afterwards. 

Update 04.03.2013

Because I just had to do what I told my readers {imaginary ones I know, and so?} I'd do. Here are photos of our simple badjao get together. And yeess, another reason why I added them is because I'm purty in them. Harhar.

Ms. Ana's treat that same day

exchange gift photos, just thought of stating the obvious

---

Let's move on to our Christmas at home, shall we? I promise not to bore you with all the details. After all, it was just the traditional Christmas Eve that we always had - dressing up a little, picture taking, some fireworks and a lot of eating. With a lot, I really mean a looottt! I have my big belly to prove that!

outside the house for some fireworks

fooooddd

opening of gifts

before they went to our bellies

mother and daughter

more photos to cap the night

Come New Year, we exerted a little more effort. We had customized shirts, lights and sounds outside, a lot more fireworks, more food I guess. 

lights, sounds and fireworks

lechon and ice cream, ftw

As expected the girls, including the old ones {hi mom!}, were crazy over pictures. See how our faces were fully made up? Mahiya kayo sa foundation at blush on namin. On the other side of the world, which meant just outside our house, the guys were busy setting up for their show. It's been a tradition as well, kuya will have sort of fireworks display while our neighbors watch them for free. I am seriously thinking of asking them viewing fees next time. Kidding. But what do you think? Hehe.

girls will always be girls

as for the guys.. here's what they do

We also had some crazy dances to summon the water serpent. I'm doubting this one though. We might have shooed it away instead.

this is how you summon the water spent

And when it struck midnight, we went outside to watch the fireworks! Kuya did an awesome job with the show while I did a not-so-awesome job taking its video. It was cut in five {or was that six} because I am panicking, I stop it from time to time. I also kept shouting "hindi ko na kaya magvideooo" because I was so scared. Hahaha! Loser!

before the show started

outfit of the night, why not?

Update 07.26.2013

Ha! I can't believe I thought I only cut the videos into five when the truth is I cut them into a whopping number of.. 10 videos!! Just saw my 'o1.o1.2o12 new year' folder again and it made me shake my head of dismay. Anyway, here's half of them. And oh, my voice is annoying. You've been warned.

Then of course, the longest part of the program is eating time! I bet you all agree. We ate until we can no longer move. But remember guys, there's no excuse to gluttony. 

And because we're camera whores.. here's another one! Happy Holidays guuyyss! Hahaha! xP

Now let's loose the extra pounds holiday gave. You with me?

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