christmas eve, morning and the days leading to 2009

hey everyone!! did you have a great Christmas?? i sure did! yayyy.

decided to celebrate bisperas at my sister's house. the morning of was pretty hectic. started the day at about 8 am, baking seven layer cookies. i don't know why it's called that 'cause looking at the recipe it calls for a layer of (1) graham cracker crumbs, (2) a can of condensed milk, (3) semi-sweet chocolate chips, (4) butterscotch chips, (5) shredded coconut, and (6) chopped pecans. the only other ingredient is a stick of melted butter mixed with the graham crumbs. butter, a layer? in any case, these cookies came out yummerrss!!!! it was chewy gooey LETHAL goodness. i also made brazo de mercedes and as our mother said the first time i made it, it was outstanding! :D

the spread consisted of mainly filipino dishes. the whole fam requested pork sinigang, pancit, lumpia, ham and pork bbq. i also made pork belly adobo (liempo) and menudo. the hubby made potato salad and potato latkes (it's a jewish thing). apart from the salad, brazo, cookies and latkes, i made everything at my sister's house. lemme tell ya, i am not doing that again anytime soon. it was super fun but boy, was it chaotic! **photos below. adobong liempo wasn't pictured, nor the brazo.**

a few of my sister's work friends had dinner with us and it made for a really enjoyable night. after a few hours of merry-eating (i know, that's not a word but it should be! lol), we watched tv waiting for the clock to hit midnight. as soon as the clock hit 11:59, gift wrap got ripped and bows got saved. got really nice stuff. more importantly though, we are just thankful for having family close and everyone in good health. :) we drove home around 1 am and opened more gifts from the in-laws. after all was said and done, we got into bed at 4. poopee!

we slept in christmas morning. sorta. we got up around 9am. cleaned up a bit and did a load of laundry. ate some leftovers. around 2pm, we headed out to the hub's brother's house for dinner with his fam. ate some more. opened more presents. around 7, headed out to the movies with sis and mom. we saw the curious case of benjamin button. it was a delightful movie. quite enjoyable, apart from the fact that is was three hours long. got home a little past 11.

my work week was shorter this week and will be this week as well. will only be working fri and sat. have yet to make concrete plans to spend new year's eve and day. any suggestions ya'll? doing downtown disney and watching the fireworks sounds good but... i'd like to try something else.

i am looking forward to the new year. the notion of starting anew and celebrating it has always been something that motivated me to reflect, learn from mistakes, be thankful and move on. so to all you, i wish you a blessed 2009! i hope all your hopes and dreams come to fruition.

eat, drink and be merry!!!!!

i'm addicted to youtube. don't hate.

yea, i admit it. i'm on it every night for gawd knows how long. it started around may. i had a wedding to go to and needed insipiration for a smokey eye look. found a few "gurus" and i haven't looked back. i currently have about 6 makeup channels i've favorited. it is now part of my whole internet routine. fster, gmail, multiply, myspace (i may delete this soon tho), a few blogs and... youtube. well, add blogspot to that now too. (refer to my first entry. bwwaahahahaha)

so, in keeping with the whole yt obsession, there is this filipino tag game going around the yt community. simply because i can, i am doing it here. so there! hee hee.

the filipino tag game basically consists of 5 questions that you answer and at the end, tag another filipino to do the same. (i can't believe i just explained such a self explanatory game. *sigh* got boredom? lol)

anyhooooo! here are the questions.
(1) when was the last time you were back in the PI?
(2) name one dish of your culture you enjoy the most and why?
(3) name one household item that best resembles your culture.
(4) do you know how to speak in your language and if you do, say a phrase or two.
(5) what part of the PI are you from?

(1) the last time i was back home was in february of this year. went home to finalize the sale of our house and to fly back with our mom. i was there for a very short 7 days. not a lot of people knew i was back and i meant it to be that way. not because i didn't want to see certain people but because i knew i didn't have the time to see them all. i hope to be back christmas 2009! woot woot!

(2) okay, now it's hard to pick just one. anyone can say chicken adobo, sinigang, kare kare. those you can easily make here with oriental marts selling almost everything you need. but what i truly truly miss enjoying the most are suman for bfast, green mangoes with rock salt (not the shit they have here! i swear, the mangoes here don't hold a candle to PI mangga!) and tahoooooooooooooooo! are you feelin me?!?!?!
(on a side note: i've recently found a way to make taho. yezzzzz. :D )

(3) there isn't just one ya'll. there's the walis tambo. the walis tingting. the tabo. the tsinelas pambahay. the wooden spoon and fork sa kusina/dining area. the rice cooker. the rice dispenser. and being that it's the holiday season: the parol! (i promised myself i'd get one this year, but alas! next year na lang. double promise.)

(4) marunong ba raw akong magtagalog? ano sa tingin nyo?

(5) balibago, angeles city, pampanga 2009. :D

time to tag!!
i tag: whoever wants to do it. :)

have a great weekend everyone!

wumsie made me do ittttt!!!!!

that's right. she sure did.

well, to be completely honest, i started this, well, 'cause... i am absolutely, utterly and unequivocally bored. ha!

i figured, im on the 'puter so much, might as well. :D

this is basically going to be all about everything and a little bit of nothing. so, enjoy!