My husband, Jay, and I have always wanted to have a more relaxed, unhurried Christmas celebration with our kids, and this year, we decided to do just that. To be able to accomplish this, we kept our list of extracurricular activities to a bare minimum, which was the practical thing to do, considering that my work break started only on the 20th and Jay’s, on the 23rd. The kids also had their Ballet Recital last December 15, and the weekends leading to it were quite hectic. Our Christmas Traditions as a family will have to start after the kids’ show, […]
Traditional Filipino Parol (Christmas Lanterns)
One of my fondest memories of Christmas when I was a child was my mom playing the Christmas album that featured traditional Christmas songs on the cassette player and seeing my brothers make the traditional Filipino parols (Filipino Christmas Lanterns) in Decembers I’m not sure if my parents commissioned my brothers to make these parols, but they used to make them every year, until they didn’t. My mom said they stopped making them when my brother almost accidentally burned our house one New Year’s Eve. In the Philippines, we don’t take down the Christmas decors until January. Some even celebrate […]
Christmas Traditions 2019: Family December Thanksgiving
Our target for December Thanksgiving is always December 1, but I think for the past two years, we’ve never really been successful at meeting the target date. Something’s always coming up that delays our plans. It’s a very important time for us to come together as a family to thank the LORD and show our appreciation to each other as a family, so we put careful thought to the preparation, making sure it’s not rushed or forced, or ill-prepped. What we’ve been doing the past years had been putting up and adorning the Christmas tree together, then we have a […]
A Minimalist Christmas
I was talking to a friend the other day about Christmas and all the festivities and activities that come along with it. She mentioned a couple of things that made me see how commercialized Christmas has become. Not that my realization is unheard of. For years, I’ve been seeing write-ups on how people focus more on the material side of the holidays, instead of the spirit of it. And it’s so much more true now. There’s a lot more of the Martha Stewart vibe going on than ever before. My husband comments, it’s social media. People see so many beautiful […]
Christmas Traditions: As for me and my household…
This is probably the most late we’ve started our Family Christmas Traditions. The kids had shows until mid-December and there were other commitments that we honored, and Jay has work until tonight; so we ended up putting up our Christmas tree two days before Christmas. We did drop by The Festival of Lights last 16th, right after our two younger kids’ school musicals, and we had a little celebration going on, but it felt so rushed because Jay had to go to work the next morning. Save our Christmas Traditions! I tried to save our Christmas Traditions this year by […]