Season of Happiness

It's been Christmas in Garcia household since November. We put up the decors soon after Hallooween. That excited, yeah. We love decorating the house and I love seeing the kids' face when we light our Christmas lights for the first time.
For the indoor decor, we recycled last year's theme as they still look fab and current. I just added new silver decors like the mirror balls and glitter butterflies.

For the outdoor, it was inspired by Trinoma's white Christmas (gaya gaya much) so I bought decors in white and gold and additional white lights.

 I'm still thinking on buying a white Christmas tree for the garden, the only thing that's keeping me from doing so is storage problem after the holidays. We never had a tree for 3 years now since I found it too space consuming but the kids wanted one this year. We'll see. Maybe if I find that perfect tree for the house.

Another happy thought is that I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. Yay! Wrapped some them and I intend to finish wrapping the gifts this weekend. I want to enjoy the rest of the season stress-free and have time to prepare for our Baguio Christmas this year.

How's your holiday season prep coming along? :)

Shopping and Boxing Weekend

Saturday: I accompanied my husband to RCBC Bankard’s Brand Mania in Silver City Decagon in Ortigas (near Tiendesitas). This is an event for both Bankard and non-bankard cardholders. Being his even, my husband had to man the event on a Saturday and asked me to accompany him but he was worried that I might get bored.

When we got to the Silver City near Tiendesitas, my jaw dropped and I got a slight panic seeing the brands that participated: MNG, Mossimo, Terranova, American Rag, Salsa, Boboli, Skin Food, Park Jun, Lola, etc. etc.  Almost all went 70% off! After registering at the entrance, my husband practically let go of me like a child being allowed to play in the playground!

At the end of the day, I was able to buy: leather belts from Terranova, P70 each ; Skin Food hair wax P157 only ; Mossimo jeans P990 (originally priced at P2200) ; TRN kids sweaters for Sophie and Sam P300 each; Boy’s polo from Mossimo P290. I was also carrying winter boots from Angels for Sophie for how many hours because they were so cheap, only P300 but after a while I thought Sophie will not wear it because it's too hot to wear in this weather. So I dropped it with much regret. So, did I get bored? LOL. I told my husband, ‘I can stay in a mall from 9am until it closes and I will never get bored.’ J I also won a backpack from Vans during a raffle promo plus husband got a P2000 GC from ParkJun so I will definitely get that haircut I want :0

After lunch I attended a photography seminar (sponsored by RCBC also) by landscape photographer and Canon ambassador Jay Jallorina. This also kept me preoccupied because it went for about 4-5 hours. It wasn’t a technical class as I wished but somehow I learned a lot about landscape photography like what are the important elements that we need to see in a good landscape photograph. One thing nice about the seminar is that I saw amazing photos from his presentation that were taken from different regions of the Philippines and made me want to go to these places and experience nature’s wonder for myself.

Sunday: my husband subscribed to our cable’s pay-per-view for Manny Pacquiao’s fight. We invited the clan to watch the fight at home and lo and behold, the guys came marching in as early as 1030am. They definitely don’t want to be late for the fight J That was also the first time my dad visited our new house, all for a Pacquiao fight!lol. By the time the fight started (around 1:15pm) the house was jam packed with some of our relatives and neighbors already viewing it from the garden. Anyway, I’ll have to give it to Manny for being a 'class fighter'. Congrats Manny! I now forgive you over that elevator prank you gave me a few months back. One thing nice about watching it live on pay-per-view is that you not only get to see it live but also in HD resolution, with nice-to-listen-to commentators and no commercial breaks. Of course, I know I will personally benefit from the tons of commercials we have during our airing, that’s how we make money in the first place. lol! 

Eat, Shop, Tour in Subic

According to our intranet site, it's 85 days before Christmas and I'm so excited! I don't know about other adults who find this season depressing but Christmas still makes me giddy as a kid :) I guess one reason to be happier now is that I know Sophie and Sam will really enjoy this season especially since Sam is a toddler already. 

Last Saturday, I added more items on my xmas basket with some toys and kikay stuff I bought from Duty Free and Royal Subic. I'm now down to buying gifts for the category of non-inaanak-but-need-to-give-gift-as-well, friends, co-managers and staff. So when we headed to Subic to 'break in' the car, I was able to find very nice gift items that are cheaper there than here in Manila and brands that are hard-to-find. Oh well, it would be totally stupid to buy things there that's more expensive than in Manila. Quote unquote break in because nowadays there's really no need to break in a car but because husband and I are looking for excuse to go out of town and spend unwisely, we went for the 'break in' trip with his parents :) 

Anyhoo, I was able to buy also personal stuff like shirt for Sophie and a jogging outfit for Sam. Bought also Dub car vacuum for P400.00, Calgon shower gels and colognes (all scents really smell good!), goodies like Combos which were on buy1 take1 promo or $.38 per piece, etc. But I guess my best steal that day was the VO5 shampoo for $1.68, that less than a hundred for one big bottle :)

We also toured my in laws around the area as it has been a while since they last went to Subic. We went to Cubi Triboa district where the monkeys are like dogs in Manila, they're just everywhere. Took photos of them for Sophie and Sam but with the windows closed for fear they would jump on me. We went further in the district and my MIL, being a daughter of a Navy officer, had a trip back memory lane the moment she saw the barracks in Cubi area.That's how their house looked like in Cavite when she was young, a tunnel-like structure with doors and windows. It was quite a big structure and according to my MIL it has a huge bathroom. Her stories made me curious of how the inside look that I want to take a peep but I noticed that houses are occupied and I found it dyahe to intrude. 

Highlight of the trip was lunch at Extremely Expresso in Sta. Rita Rd. where we ordered giant seafood pizza, meatball spaghetti, ceasar salad and blueberry cheesecake. We also brought home 2 very huge cinnamon bread (P50 each). I wanted to try their gelato but my stomach was about to explode! The pizza will make you come back to the place, the desserts you can go without. This is my second trip to that resto (first was after the Pundaquit outing) and it has been very satisfying on both occasions. The place is packed again but  this time were able to find a table. 

p.s. no photos still, upload problem :(