A glance at my wandering thoughts

Posts by HappyMappy

Santo Niño

Posted on January 19, 2016
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We finally concluded last Sunday the Santo Niño celebration, a famous religious celebration in the Philippines about the Holy Child Jesus. This has been a worldwide practice among Filipino Catholics even in the US. The Vatican has set the 3rd Sunday of January as the liturgical feast day of Santo Niño as proclaimed by Pope Innocent XIII.

I’m glad that this tradition has been formed in the minds of future generation whose interest to their culture and devotion to the Child Jesus will never be forgotten through the help of parents, communities, and even schools that encourage cultural performances.

A few blogs ago, I posted my sewing comeback in reference to my daughters’ costumes as Singkil princess and my youngest as one of the maidens. I promised to post the finished dresses including the prince’s outfit. Here they are, done with their performance…

The most challenging for me is making the Prince’s pants and sleeves for the top. Basically, this is my first time to make men’s outfit. The sleeves were painstakingly difficult to assemble. Unlike normal sleeve patterns, this one calls for upper and lower cut two-pattern sleeves; thus, matching the notches was tedious. I had to re-do them twice which explain why the bottom of his top is different in color because I ran out of fabric material due to my mistake. I used the princess’s top fabric instead and I think the golds harmonize well with the blue hue. To make the wrong sleeves useful, I made a Kufi hat out of it as shown in the picture.IMG_0316-1

 

The hanging beaded bells added a chiming sound effect to the costume. The making of these hanging beads was time-consuming and so I let the girls do it. I secured them in a gold lace and hand-sewn at the base of her kebaya (blouse) for easy removal in time for hand-wash after use. I found an elastic necklace material at Michael’s and it was perfect to hold the ankle bells.

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The colorful combination of the maidens’ costumes complemented well with their magenta sash and striking fuchsia fans.  I took the color swatch from their striped skirt in deciding which fabric color to choose for their kebayas. This type of outfit is indigenous in the Southern part of the Philippines with Islāmic communities even today. History tells us that the Royal family of Rajas in Cebu were the first to accept the image of Santo Niño and eventually converted to Christianity. Santo Niño de Cebu has been a huge annual celebration ever since.

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Categories: Our Rose Buds

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Charcuterie

Posted on January 4, 2016

I still have one more day to enjoy before going back to work mode. Tomorrow, my snooze button will be useful again. The past weeks have been wonderful just because the atmosphere was the most anticipated time of the year. I accomplished many things on my list during the holiday break while several of them are yet to be crossed out. I just completed today some of the most time-consuming tasks I need to get done…Happy me!

I’m still eating some of our New Year left-over food. Thankfully, there’s enough to suffice my girls who eat like birds. I did not cook any main dish on New Year’s Day. Food is everywhere at Christmas time. I decided to prepare something light on day one of 2016. The hubs and I paid a trip to the grocery store the day before and purchased our favorite brie with good finds on charcuteries. Before heading to our trips as scheduled on New Year, I prepared cheese board and small bites to keep us going.

The cheese and charcuterie board reminded me the time when I was in Germany. I’m used to eating hot foods in the morning but I learned to eat cold cuts and artisanal bread early in the day during my stay in Frankfurt with a strong cup of coffee as the only hot item on the table.

 

Cheese Board and Charcuterie

Cheese Board and Charcuterie

 This combination of figs and olives are delicious. They are both sweet and tangy.

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 I’m used to the sweetness of brie but this one is both a bit salty and sweet. I’ve been looking for a triple cream and stores are usually available with double cream. I’m glad I found this. The texture is similar when you eat Lindor chocolate. Of course, how can I forget the Ancho chili jam that is almost like a tradition in the presence of a brie. The caramelized almonds complement well with the cheese.

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This is something that intrigued me when I saw this at the store. It is called Panforte di Siena. I googled it and I found that this can be eaten as a dessert or a breakfast. It has an acquired taste with strong spicy taste. This is good with coffee, just make sure you don’t put sugar because this is very sweet. I told my girls that when I ate it, I felt like I am in a different era, probably around the 1500s. I know it’s odd but I just felt like it. Well, that is something different for this new year. Never be afraid of something new!IMG_0153-1

Here’s the full brand name that I took photo while in the store

Panforte Di Sienna

Panforte Di Siena

 

 

Categories: HAPPY Eats!

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The Things I Love About Christmas

Posted on December 28, 2015
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I love Christmas Day. Sadly it’s over and it passed in the blink of an eye.  There are hundreds of things I love during the holiday season and one of them is not hitting the snooze button. I love it when I can enjoy few days of vacation. The anticipation of the big day has always been a race of thought in trying to recall the things I have completed in my to-do list. Yet, in spite of the hustle bustle, I still managed to enjoy the busyness of the Christmas season because after all, it is the most wonderful time of the year. We started the Christmas week with a handful of parties either with friends or at work.  I love it when my close circle of friends spends our annual Christmas group reunion together. As friends, we all agreed that we don’t need expensive gifts for each other. There are financially challenged families who would benefit the extra dollars we would spend for exchange gifts. So, we decided to reduce our price bracket and share the rest to them.  This year, one of our friends gave the idea of adopting a few families in one of the parishes in our diocese to be their secret Santas in the hope of uplifting the spirit of Christmas to those families.

That is not to say we’ll have a boring Christmas party; I love fun and to add excitement in our get-together, the ladies exchanged scarves and socks for the gents. We were able to enjoy the simple gift giving and a buffet brunch before heading to our Christmas caroling later that afternoon. It was a busy but rewarding day. I love it when mindfulness of the season through the gift of sharing has been accomplished.

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Go Warriors!

It was flooding with socks and scarves 🙂

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You can never go wrong with a scarf. I never had any specific Christmas scarf and this one will surely be used for many years to come.

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Scarf, scarf!

Christmas day is for family; hence, the whole world generally celebrates with a big bang declaring it as an official holiday in most places since time immemorial. It is basically a break to spend time with your loved ones. Every year, my sister-in-law would invite my daughters with their cousins to spend a few days with her the day after Christmas. It has been her traditional annual bonding moments with them.

We have an empty nest for at least a couple of days while kids stay with their aunt. Last night, the hubs and I have had the opportunity to stroll in the mall to look for significant sale events. When we got home, I looked around my daughter’s bedroom and found a lonely Pooh bear with his Grinch hat…alone in the middle of the bed.  I wonder how it feels if we truly have an empty nest when kids have gone out to college. It must be really interesting.

Lonely Pooh Bear

Lonely Winnie the Pooh

I seldom go to my girls’ room and it made me smile when I saw this frame on the wall. It’s funny because I just heard this quote from a teen star in the TV show a few days ago, “A girl should be two things: Classy and fabulous” but then I couldn’t recall why it was familiar. Now I know why… Coco Chanel’s famous line is hanging on my daughter’s wall. I remember shopping in one of the thrift stores with my daughter over a year ago when she saw this frame and wouldn’t leave the store until I purchase it for her…and there it is in its glory 🙂

Fab girls

Classy and Fabulous

In all things Christmas, I get really excited when I receive Christmas cards by mail. I can feel the effort and the love of the person who sent it, I guess because I love doing it too. Every year, I try to send greeting cards to friends and families in time for the holiday, a tradition that I want to pass on to my daughters. I admit for being guilty of procrastination but I love it when my girls gather around the table with me and take responsibility as to who would take care of writing to specific family and friends. It’s not easy to write and think of a holiday cheer, it needs a strategy. However, amid the Christmas music, to-do list that needs to be crossed out, and other things that occupy me, it is often a challenge to cherish the cards I received. I won’t deny that I often skim quickly and look who it’s from and set them aside. But, it’s very important to choose a day to gather them all and read again.

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Christmas Greeting Cards

 

“May the spirit of Christmas guide your heart just as the wise men were guided by the star”

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A Greeting from a friend

I like to re-read them over a cup of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace. Tranquility is the key to absorb the words of inspiration and encouragement from these greeting cards when all is calm and silent.  The old fashion hand-writings and smiley faces written on the card make the moment more nostalgic. Such moment is part of the essence of Christmas where love abounds. How do you manage reading your Christmas cards from friends and family?

 

 

 

Categories: I thought of it

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“Goodbye boredom, Hello bowling”

Posted on September 4, 2015

It’s Friday, hubby and I finally have a date after years of my absence from reality. Being a grad student can make you invisible in many ways particularly if it has nothing to do with weekly school project and peer discussion. Gone are the sleepless nights where I had often wished to even use my sleep time just to complete a weekly paper worth 3,000 words; not to mention the days that even my driving time must be used for phone conferences with school peers to meet the week’s project deliverables for the course requirement. It’s time to forget those calculus exams and excel solver that can be nerve-wracking at some point. No more prowling of CEOs that I need to discourse in the…

Categories: Marriage is a bliss

A New Beginning

Posted on April 6, 2015

When I was coming of age, I spent most of my days with siblings and close friends. We were very much engaged in our parish youth activities.  I grew up surrounded by people with solid belief and a family whose faith is anchored in Christ. The priest in our parish was instrumental in honing us with the foundation of Church’s teaching. One of the most important lessons I learned is to remember that Easter is the greatest feast in the Christian calendar.  I always thought it was Christmas with all the festivities around both the faithful and secular world. Nevertheless, the given explanation to youngsters with simple minds was easy to comprehend; Christmas is when we celebrate the humanity of our savior, and on Easter, we celebrate…

Categories: Family first!, I thought of it, Our Rose Buds

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Tinker, Tinker, Little Stars

Posted on January 5, 2015

We had an opportunity to take our daughters with their younger cousins to visit Exploratorium in San Francisco during the holiday break. As usual in a place like this, children and the young minds are the stars of the museum. This museum is full of interactive exhibits that will absolutely piqué one’s mind. It’s hard to just stare and observe without exploring them with your own hands (hence the name “Exploratorium”). I found out that the founder of this institution was Frank Oppenheimer. His last name definitely rings a bell. I’m talking about the Manhattan Project in the mid-40s during the 2nd world war era. He was the younger brother of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of Atomic Bomb. I’m sure you are all familiar with the…

Categories: Family first!, Our Rose Buds

Beautiful Yesterdays

Posted on January 2, 2015

Yesterday was the last day of 2014 and even though I had to work, it’s ok since I’m looking forward to an almost a week off after the New Year’s Eve. Holiday time off is always rewarding. It gives us a break from the humdrum of our life’s routine. I’m so glad that I’m able to sneak out a time to post an entry in my blog space today which has been a difficult task for me this past year. As soon as I got out from work yesterday, I hurriedly drove home to start roasting a turkey that I’ll bring to a friend’s house for the eve’s party. After I set the oven for 3 hours and gave instructions to hubby and my…

Categories: I thought of it

A New Year of Blogging

Posted on January 10, 2014

“I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart” – Anne Frank Before I begin another year of blogging, happy 2014 to all my readers! My calendar is already filled with activities for the next two months although no blogging schedule is included. For some reason, the impulse to write in my blog just comes out randomly; yet sadly, the constraint in time is obviously crushing. I’m thinking of sharing the activities that occupied me in the last two weeks of holiday period. I want to re-experience those moments by writing them…yes, those exhausting, frustrating, and overwhelming moments! It was exhausting because in spite of the holiday spirit, I…

Categories: Family first!

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Christmas with the “Thainese”

Posted on December 10, 2013

I used to plan our family’s meal menu for the week as it’s more economical and the food items in our pantry are easier to monitor. Alas! I haven’t succeeded in maintaining that task lately. The practical side of me is frequently challenged when my thought process is constantly interrupted with an avalanche of things to do which often end up unfinished. An aide ‘memoir will help I suppose. A few nights ago, I was preparing for a work report that I needed to finish. In short, I didn’t have the time to prepare our dinner. I asked the girls for ideas about dinner and they decided to have Pad-Thai noodles since we haven’t had one for a very long time. Problem solved ‘coz…

Categories: I thought of it, Laugh Lines

Adventures in the Universal Studios (Hollywood)

Posted on December 4, 2013

….Continuation of our Thanksgiving holiday escapade. It was around 5 AM on the morning of Friday after Thanksgiving when my body clock awoke me. I knew it was “Black Friday,” one of the most important dates to shop in prep for holiday gift giving here in US but I didn’t even bother to look for online deals. I checked on the girls in the next room and they were still asleep. I rested an hour more and the four of us were at the breakfast buffet of the hotel by 7AM. Hubby and I had omelets while the kids picked their choices. After our fill, we went back to our suite and started to get ready for our adventure. There was a 30% chance…

Categories: Family first!

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