Last Friday of 2014

Today is the last Friday of 2014. 

My morning was spent with my Yayay Cita packing for my Malaysia trip tomorrow. I am so helpless without her. 

This afternoon, I went to the office to complete some of my paperwork and presentation deck. I'm not planning to bring my lappy so better do everything TODAY! 

It's  been very quiet in the office --- as in reeeaaaally quiet. I'm not used to it. 

At any rate, despite the lack of thorough review of what I've done this year and how I fared in my bucket list, I actually think I did quite well. 

God has been very generous. I have been very blessed. 

Off to more paperwork before I finally enjoy my holiday break. 

RnR. Finally!!!

I've got a feeling...

...that I will reach almost all my personal targets this year. 

AYLOVETTE!!! 

I haven't gone through my list one by one yet, but I think I did well. 

=) 

Of Christmas traditions and comfort zones

I'm pretty much flexible and I go with the flow. I can make the best of bad situations.  I can appreciate the simple things in life. When I'm happy, I'm really giddy-happy.

Admittedly though, no matter how flexible and adaptable I am, I do have comfort zones.

Amidst the sea of change, I take comfort in classic traditions. In the same people I see, I talk to, I go to for the really important things. 

Every year, every 25th of December, our high school circle gets together for our Christmas dinner. It started in 1994 and it hasn't been broken ever since. 

1 more year to go and it's gonna be 2 decades of this long-running tradition. Our expats go home for this. I was looking forward to it myself when I was still in Indonesia. 

I'm just glad that some things don't change. And I hope they won't anytime soon. 

This is one of my favorite traditions of all time. =) 

Christmas morning

Christmas mornings are THE BEST!!!

I can wake up late. 

I wake up with my entire family in the house. As soon as I enter the living room, I smell the waft of piping hot chocolate and Mom's classic spaghetti meat sauce being warmed on the kitchen stove. 

The entire house is just really crazy - Abbygale shouting, playing and running around, conversations among the oldies - my Mom, my Dad and Yayay Cita. 

One word to describe everything: BLISS. 

The holiday season used to make me sad. 

Not anymore. 

I have no reason to be. 

JC has blessed me so much. There's just so many things to be thankful for. 

My family. Skye. My friends. My career. Everything in my life just fits all perfectly for me. 

Today, it's JC's birthday. Ironically, He's the one who gave me a plenitude of gifts. 

Christmas. 

I now love Christmas. =) 

Premium on friendships: Part 2

And so you called me this morning, insistently asking if we could see each other over the holidays. 

I can sense this is your way of making it up. 

You ask me to go with you to get your barongs custom-made. 

You evade the topic of radio silence for 2 months and pretend like nothing happened. 

Dork. 

But fine. 

Since you are one of my friends and it's Christmas, I will let this one slide. 

But do this again...do it one more time...

You're really gonna be off the friendship list. 

Merry Christmas, Alpha One. 

Big Dreams

I have big dreams for other people. 

I have big dreams for my family. 

I have bigger dreams for Abby. 

Yesterday, I was with Abby the entire day. She had such a great time choosing her Hello Kitty Christmas gifts. 

She told me that her dream is to have her own bedroom filled with Hello Kitty stuff. Hello Kitty pillows and bed cover, Hello Kitty lamps, boxes, toiletries. Hello Kitty everything! 

I do want that for her. 

Early next year (which is just a matter of days), I will look for a new school for her already. I definitely want to enroll her in a better school. It's never too early to prepare her for university. 

And I want her to go to MY University. 

Big dreams. 

I need all of the Universe's conspiracy for this. 

Loooooong albeit pleasant Sunday

It's past 1am but my day just ended. I'm ending it with a glass of wine (or two) while reading my last book for the year. 

Today is epic. 

It's been a looooooong day of errands in preparation for Christmas.

Whatta Sunday! 

It is a blessed one, though. Amidst the frenzy was a good quality time with la familia. 

Family trumps all else. 

I'm definitely loving this season. =)