December 29, 2012

Highlights of 2012

This is my year-end post.

January 

My husband family reunion in Pangasinan

February


My nephew celebrated his 7th birthday in Ilocos and we joined their Laoag-Vigan-Pagudpud trip.



We also celebrated our wedding anniversary in Bacolod, Iloilo and Guimaras.


 March 

We attended 18th birthday.


 April 

We spent our Holy Week in Laguna. We visited Nagcarlan Church, Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery, Majayjay Falls and Isdaan. We visited Caleruega for the nth time.


 May

Celebrated Mother’s Day in Taal Vista Hotel


June 

Celebrated husband’s birthday in Viewpoint and Father’s Day in Lake Pandin.


July 

Psorlead meeting at Asian Hospital, second canvassing of Mr. and Ms. PsorPhil

August 

We visited Café Lago. I won the Ms.PsorPhil title. Watched the first school performance of my son, he danced “Salakot” during their Linggo ng Wika event. Celebrated my birthday in Acacia Hotel.


September 

First trimestral exam and first distribution of school cards.

October 

Celebrated my son’s 4th birthday in school. Attended Web Design and PC TroubleshootingSeminar. Watched dance performance of my son in United Nation event. Attended Trick or Treat event in school and office. Joined the yearly World Psoriasis Day.

November

Visited Hongkong

December 

Visited Macau. Attended Asian PsorClub Christmas Party. Watched my son’s Carol Fest in school. Christmas Celebration.



Thank you Lord for all the blessings. Happy New Year! 
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December 27, 2012

Cheesy Garlic Bread


One of my husband’s colleagues gave us garlic bread last Christmas; I thought it was French bread because it’s really long. I forgot to serve it during our Noche Buena; I mean dinner so we ate it today. I made cheesy garlic bread for our merienda.



Garlic Bread + Mozzarella Cheese = YUM

toast until cheese melts.
Next time, I will add chopped tomatoes and bacon bits. #namnam
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Asian PsorClub Christmas Party


Christmas season is indeed a stressful season and stress is not good to me so I don’t attend all invites that I received. As much as I want to attend I have to prioritize things and attending events is not my top priority. I don’t want to waste my time travelling from one place to another because of the traffic.

This Christmas season, I only attended two events and one of them is Asian PsorClub Christmas Party. I missed the November get together because of my last minute preparation for our Hongkong-Macau trip.



It was just a simple get together but we had fun eating and singing. (oops, I did not sing.) We brought exchange gift and white elephant gift.


Photos from our Facebook Group.
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December 26, 2012

Unexpected

Christmas is over and I’m pretty sure some of you need to turn on their work mode. As I mentioned in my other post, I was so busy and I really had no time going to the malls to buy gifts and grocery for our Noche Buena food so I ended up giving homemade gifts and cooking whatever available in our kitchen.

For our Noche Buena, I cooked roast chicken, spaghetti and no-bake cheesecake (no blueberry, hehe!). We don’t have yearly tradition as long as we are together, that is enough for us. My son slept as early as 6PM and had no plan of waking up, I woke him up for our dinner but he wanted to sleep so hubby and I ate and slept, no more Noche Buena and opening of gifts because my son was sleeping.

The following day, we went to church and visited my in-laws to give our gifts then we went home to open our gifts. Yes, I have gifts too, I received unexpected gifts from my mommy friends in school so this time I have several gifts to open compared to my past Christmases when I only need few minutes to open my gifts.


Thanks to Mel of Mel’s Hidden Passions for the gift. It was really unexpected. Thanks for my Starbucks planner and pen.


Lastly, my son showed me his first Christmas card and I asked him “is this for mommy or daddy?” he said, no, it’s for Ethan. Ok fine, he doesn’t want to give this Christmas card to us. =)


Happy Holiday! 
“Christmas isn’t just about giving gifts, it’s about making other people happy, making them feel God’s presence through our existence” - anonymous
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December 22, 2012

Top 10 Reasons Holiday Makers Overspend

December is not my favorite month because this is the month that we overspend because you have to buy gifts, decorations, clothes and food for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. December is also the busiest month of my husband because of three Christmas Parties that he has to attend and work that he needs to finish. Call me scrooge but I don’t like how people celebrate and tend to forget the real reason of this season.

I must agree that Christmas is not one giant party. Sharing this message from Francis Kong site.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Notice this, as a child He was born of a virgin, as a son He was given.

The manger gave way to the cross many years later when He gave His life for us so that we may be saved.

And this is why the real meaning of Christmas is that the Savior has come but the real meaning of Christianity is not the manger but the empty tomb.

No, it’s not about the gifts and the parties, it’s not about cash flow, it’s not about stocks inventory and it’s not about our failing economy.

It’s all about putting accepting the Prince of Peace and allowing Him to reign in our hearts so that we may spend the rest of eternity with Him.

Then and only then do we enjoy Christmas.

Sharing this infographic 

Top 10 Reasons holiday makers overspend Infographic
Source: FastLoanTree.com
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December 21, 2012

Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland




As promised I will post our second day in Hong Kong Disneyland, after checking-out in Disney's Hollywood Hotel, we left our baggage and immediately went to Disneyland Resort. This time we will concentrate on Main Street and Tomorrow Land, park that we missed during our first day.


For the second time around we missed the Mickey and Minnie Mouse photo op, hindi na naman kami nakakaabot sa pila. =( 

so kami na lang. hehe!
We watched Disney Performing Arts.


I wanted to visit Animation Academy to learn how to draw Disney characters but hubby was not interested so we just visit souvenir shops while waiting for the Santa Mickey’s Toy-riffic Street party.


Then I saw my college classmate, the last time I saw him was 4 years ago when I submitted my resignation and got my stuff in the office. He told me that I should informed him that we will visit Disneyland so he can give me passes. Waah! I know that he works in Hongkong Disneyland but I did not know that they have free passes. Imagine my savings if I just informed him, sayang talaga!

Entrance Fee of Hong Kong Disneyland.

1 Day Ticket
General Admission Ticket (aged 12-64) HK $399
Child Ticket (aged 3-11) HK $285
Senior Ticket (aged 65 or above) HK $100

2 Day Ticket
General Admission Ticket (aged 12-64) HK$499
Child Ticket (aged 3-11) HK$355
Senior Ticket (aged 65 or above) HK$170

I bought 2 day pass ticket amounted to $HK1353 or P7424.61. If ever we will be back in Disneyland I will definitely inform him.



Fake snow! =)
After the parade show we went to Tomorrow Land, we rode Orbitron and Space Mountain. The minimum height requirement of Space Mountain is 102cm and my son is exactly 102cm in their measurement so they allowed us to enter this ride. We’ve watched and read so many warnings that this ride has pause, bumps, etc. But in my mind, it is like a mini roller coaster just like in Enchanted Kingdom but I was wrong.


I was praying during the ride and my prayer is really intensified because I can’t forgive myself if something happened to my son. This is the scariest ride that I’ve experienced and my knees were really shaking. 

 But God is good, my son was just ok and when I’ve asked him if he wants to ride again, he said yes but of course I will never ride Space Mountain again. My husband was also guilty and he embraced my son all throughout the ride and he just told my son to look at the stars. Hehe! (yung katabi ko na foreigner na super laki, takot na takot din)

After that, we took a rest and went to Fantasy Garden again for photo op.


 Then we went to Lucky Nuggets Saloon for our lunch.


Next stop is Stitch Encounter, we thought that we will watch a show but this is an interactive show. It was fun and my husband became part of the show.


We rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and photo op with Buzz Lightyear.

ang gulo ni buzz, natamaan pa ulo ko kakapalit ng position
Our last activity was watching Flights of Fantasy Parade.



As much as we want to stay longer to watch the Christmas Illumination and Fireworks we have to say goodbye to Hong Kong Disneyland and say Hello Macau. #bitin


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December 20, 2012

Credit Card Security

More than two weeks ago I received a text from my credit card company saying “Our monitoring system has detected unusual transaction(s) on your credit card. Please call collect our 24-hour customer service hotline for verification.” I did not call immediately because I was already sleepy, I told my husband to call my credit card company first thing in the morning and I also sent an email. 

 CS representative advised my husband that there are floating charges on my credit card, MOP and USD amount and as of now my credit card is on hold. He confirmed that I used my credit card in Macau and I renewed my domain account in Google. 

 My husband told me about the conversation, I told him that I paid Hotel Sintra-Macau and I chose Peso so there should be no MOP charge on my credit card. I checked my online account and there was already a reply. I immediately replied on the email stating that I confirmed the Google purchase but not the Hotel Sintra floating charge. They just informed me that the merchant has 21 days to cancel or confirm the charges.

 I keep on monitoring my online account to check if I still have floating charge and thank God as of today no more floating charge. I just don’t understand why Hotel Sintra still charged me when I already made my payment upon our arrival. But I was thankful because my credit card notified me, somehow I feel secured.
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December 19, 2012

Hong Kong: Chef Mickey’s Restaurant




One of the things that I really look forward to staying in Disney’s Hollywood Hotel is the breakfast so we woke up early and bought breakfast coupon. 


Actually, we’re the first guests inside the Chef Mickey’s Restaurant.




There are several choices of food but not that much and the taste is just ok, nothing special. 



We’re eating so slowly because we’re waiting for the Disney characters, we’ve been waiting for almost an hour but I can’t see any Disney character so we asked and to my disappointment, there are no Disney characters during breakfast. Waah, I was really sad because I’ve been waiting for that moment and I was really excited for my son.


I thought we can meet and greet Chef Mickey in Chef Mickey’s Restaurant but the Disney characters are in Enchanted Garden Restaurant. Another epic failure and this mistake is not cheap because I paid $HK474 (P2607) for this breakfast and my son only ate one Mickey Mouse banana bread and one Mickey Mouse waffle.
This is what I’ve read so I really have no idea that there is a specific meal and time na nandun si Chef Mickey and breakfast time is excluded.

Chef Mickey “The biggest superstar talent there is, Mickey Mouse, invites you to enjoy an international buffet in Mickey’s style! Immerse in Disney’s world of animation while you meet the star Chef Mickey and delight in delicacies from around the globe that he has specially prepared. Don’t forget your cameras for capturing your special moments with Mickey!”

Lesson learned: Ask first if Disney characters are present before buying meal coupon and read carefully. 

Anyway, sharing the food that we’ve tried. 




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