Woman in Chains

We had nothing planned for yesterday. The kids were just going to play all day while I catch up on some reading. Over lunch, I casually asked my daughter E about her harness necklaces. I started making earrings when she brought me along this crafts supplies store where she bought yards and yards of chains. When E said that she hasn't had time to make them, I asked if I can give it a shot. I love making things with my hands and I thought those necklaces looked cool! And that's how I found myself all rolled up in chains. I ended up making three harness necklaces and two bib chains. Before we knew it, it was three in the morning and my daughter actually had to tell me to stop. I can be quite obsessive, you see. I love the holidays!!






Biker chic?





Rein me in!

Catsup Season

I call it the catsup season, that time of year when you try to catch up on your different subsets of friends. You plan weeks before, texting your friends or group of friends, hoping all your schedules will match amidst the busy season.

My catsup season started weeks ago. K and I had a long, quiet talk over gising-gising, swapping career stories and exchanging gifts. Over coffee, Jc and I dreamed up projects and laughed like teenagers. R and I relished our mushroom soups while talking about aching backs and mommy challenges. As for P and G, we ended up singing the night away, belting out Don't Cry For Me Argentina.

I love playing catsup. I not only get to see all my fabulous friends once again, I also get to hear their fabulous stories, like A for instance. I just met with her a couple of hours ago, and I am just so excited about her life right now. She has moved abroad, spending time with her family and going back to school so that she can do something she really loves. I am absolutely inspired.

I still have a couple more catsups to go. On Wednesday, I am meeting my high school friends. And I'm sure that I'm going to have a blast!

I should do catsups more often!

Christmas Carols 4

Am still very much on holiday mode; these are the songs I grew up with. My dad had a tape of Christmas songs sung by Ray Conniff and his gang and they'd play it over and over.

White Elephant

I love, love, love the idea of the white elephant. It goes like this: Instead of buying new gifts, you "shop" from the inventory of gifts you've received. This isn't just practical (and in keeping with the times), it's also a lot of fun! And that's how P, E, Kv, and I spent one breezy afternoon at The Swing.




With the help of Kv's high-tech phone with a dice option (I actually threw it one time mwahaha), we had fun "stealing" each other's gifts; the thought being the nicer the gift wrapper, the lovelier the gift.





I definitely went for the witty packaging, and ended up with a box of Ferrero Rocher and a salmon-colored, furry doormat.





Kv got all sorts of bags.




P got a "Love is Hell" shirt, a bottle opener, and a BenCab notepad (She already had one of those so now she has two! Mwahahaha).





E got a Martin Cruz Smith book (he immediately scanned the book for pictures, of which there were none bwahahaha), food containers, and L'Occitane stuff.

Not bad for so-called recycled gifts; I love it!

Noche Buena

Every year like clockwork, my mom would say that she is not going to cook for Christmas. "Kayo na ang magluto. Bahala na kayo (You cook. It's up to you)," she will say to anyone and no one. Of course, we never take it seriously because we all know that she would be up all night the day before Christmas eve, cooking a whole slew of dishes for Noche Buena.

A few weeks ago, while hanging out on The Swing, I asked my mom what we'd be having for Christmas, and she said again that she did not want to cook anything. So, as a gesture, I offered to cook my lasagna: Big mistake!! And that's how I ended up slaving at the kitchen on December 24, while my dad puttered around, saying that my lasagna better taste good. Pressure!

When finally, we took the lasagna out of the oven, my mom and my sister B got their forks and took a taste.

Mom: Uhmm, parang kulang. May asin ba yan? (It lacks something. Did you put salt?)
Sister B: OK naman ah! (It's OK!)

I knew I could always count on my sister B to back me up!! Mwahahaha

As for our Noche Buena, it proved to be quite a spread: turkey baked in pineapple sauce with marble potatoes, roast pork loin, callos, Mom's Potato Salad, green salad, and all sorts of fruits, and halaya. Yum!




Mom and Dad's Noche Buena spread. Yes, Mom ended up cooking the night before Christmas eve, marinating the turkey for hours and hours. She was going to make chicken galantina but then saw this turkey at the supermarket, and wham! Turkey!





The big-ass turkey's neck! It's humongous!





The presents!! :)





Dad got this shirt from my daughter E! Mwahahahaha





Baby S with her two front teeth! So happy! She already knows how to smile for the camera.

Christmas Carols 3

Falalalala ... our class sang this at a high school Christmas choral competition. We were singing while decorating the tree and making merry, which was horribly distracting. I think we won that year with this song but we were nowhere as good as this group. Mwahahahaha falalalalala

Christmas Carols 2

Every Christmas, my sisters and I used to come up with these choreographed song numbers. This is one song that we sang over and over.

Christmas Carols 1

I discovered this song while studying at the Ateneo. I remember singing this with Eric M and G de G while washing plastic cups atop a pickup van during the EDSA revolution. Its melody and meaning has haunted me ever since.



e.

Polka Presents

Polka Presents, originally uploaded by jenniferwrites.

One of the things I love about Christmas . . . wrapping presents! It started when my sisters and I were still little and we would wrap our presents in newspaper. We didn't want wrappers that you can just buy at the bookstore; we wanted one-of-a-kind wrappers as lovely as the presents inside. And year after year, when we got older, we would outdo each other in the gift wrapping department. One Christmas, one of my sisters even made hand-sewn fabric wrappers! Well, she definitely won that one.

Since I now don't have much time to think up of wacky wrappers, I make do with cool wrappers. I always like my gifts to be coordinated, to have a theme of sorts. And this year, it's polka dots! I found these just yesterday while walking around Glorietta and I just had to have them! And while I was really tired from all the last-minute shopping, I immediately started wrapping gifts the minute I got home. Ah, the pleasures of Christmas!

First Christmas Gift

Baby S got her first ever Christmas gift a couple of days ago. And because her lola does not have any sense of EQ whatsoever, we ended up helping Baby S open her gift pronto! And there it was, a Fisher Price snail shape sorter, which plays a rocking tune every time you press hard on it. Baby S was as happy as a bee, and started banging at the shape blocks and dancing to the music in no time.

Baby S is now 10 months old, and I am absolutely amazed at how much she's grown developmentally in the past few weeks. She can do all sorts of tricks now from waving bye-bye and looking at the light to standing by herself and gingerly taking a step or two before falling on her wee behind.

And oh how she loves music! Her mom used to lull her to sleep with this classical music track that did not sit well with my ears. Hey! I love classical but they were, you know, baby classical music and they can be grating when played over and over again. Now, Baby S sleeps to house tunes, which we all love; I could imagine Baby S dancing in her slumber, dreaming of Christmas lights and singing snails. I am quite sure that we'd be seeing her running in no time.

Thanks Tita P for the wonderful gift! :)

Buko Salad

Buko, originally uploaded by jenniferwrites.

At long last, I have time to blog! I was going to start writing about all the Christmas stuff that's been happening around the house but then I got sidetracked by Flickr. Love it! My friend B is always telling me to get into Flickr, and now, well, here I am! When I saw the "Blog This" icon, I got even more excited. And so, here's a bunch of coconuts from Snake Island in Palawan; the photo seems appropriate for the season considering all the buko salad that will surely make an appearance on every other Filipino table. Maligayang bati!

Kris Kringle Run

It's hard to get into the spirit of the season when your nose is all stuffy, your eyes watery, and your head throbbing like crazy. But then, the show must go on. And while I wanted to just stay home and drown myself in Vicks Vaporub, I still had to do some mommy chores, a.k.a. accompanying my son K to get a present for his class Kris Kringle, and getting S and F their presents, too.

And while we speed-shopped our way through the counters, we managed to see some interesting Christmas trees.




This one's made from rubber slippers.





This, from shoe boxes. I happen to like this brand, by the way, cute idea :)






I love this one of popcorn, I think it's barbecue flavored.






And for the OC, yuletide greetings of tissue paper! We saw another one made of human hair but it was just too freaky to post.

Happy holidays!!


P.S. The boys are all OK now but my daughter E got German Measles, and she's still kinda itchy. We miss Baby S! She had to be shipped off at her dad's because the house is all contaminated!

Dead Spot

Whenever I'm out of town, I'd call the house like crazy; maybe three or four times a day. I'd call to ask if my kids had already eaten, if everybody had come home, if they had locked the door. I call with such regularity that I don't even have to say hello, whoever picks up the phone, usually my son K, would automatically answer, "Hi Mom! S is sleeping. F is watching TV. E is at the computer."

While I was in Palawan last week, my calls were not only frequent, they also came with a ring of nervous anxiety. "Does E still have fever? S's rashes, how are they? Can you feel F's forehead to see if it's still hot?" I'm sure my son K got quite annoyed at one point.

Everything came to a halt when I suddenly found myself in a dead spot. We were at this beach, an hour or so from city proper, when suddenly, there was no signal, no bar! What's a praning mom supposed to do? Stop worrying. Hit the waves. Enjoy the day!





The sand was brownish but the water was very clear. And the waves, the waves were huge and ferociously relentless.





Walking down the beach was both calming and relaxing.





I could never not hit the water. The waves were just awesome. It felt great to play around with the waves, knowing I could never ever have the strength to not let go. It was refreshing to not be in control, sometimes.





Sunset at the beach with food and friends is just the best! Thank goodness for dead spots!

Tarantella!!!

Tuesday found me in total disarray. I was to go out of town the next day for work but my children were still sick. It is a dilemma that working women find themselves in at some occasion. The flights have been booked, the arrangements made, but then something comes up at home. What to do?!

S was already OK. One down, I thought. But since F still had a temperature, I decided to bring him to the doctor that very morning. As luck would have it, we did not have to wait long to see our doctor. The verdict: intestinal flu, which accounted for his fever and crappy toilet activity. With the right diet and antibiotics, he should be fine in a couple of days. When we got home, another complication came up: E had fever. And that same afternoon as well, S developed rashes, which looked a lot like the German Measles that K had just a few months ago.

I was quietly going out of my mind, counting the hours when they'd have to take their next dose of medicine, giving them quick sponge baths, giving them water, asking them what else I could do for them. My youngest son K asked, "OK ka lang, Ma?" He knew how worried I could get. And I answered a weak, "I'm OK." A quick phone call to my sister B revived me somewhat. "J, children get sick all the time. Don't worry. Go! I will check up on them."

The next day, I told my daughter to go to our doctor first thing in the morning and to bring her brother S with him. By that time, the boys' temperatures have normalized. And as I boarded the plane, I was confident that they were on their way to recovery. Four hours later, my daughter was on the line: she had pharyngitis and S had German Measles; they've got their medications, and they're all just going to rest at home. I gave a big sigh of relief.

Breathe, Jing, breathe!

Keep Walking

We're all red this year. At our annual Christmas staff shoot, we decided to do some walking. Instead of just posing like statues, E got it into his head to get some movement into the picture. And you know, those action shots may look easy but they're difficult to do, especially when there are more than a half dozen people involved.





Our melodious associate publisher, pa-kyut!! :)






P, kumakain na naman. P is the only person I know who could go to the pantry empty-handed but come out with her stomach full! Nyaha!!






Our production coordinator E; love you, mader! That's our photographer K, nakalbo na sa pagpapalakad sa amin: Joke!!!






Taray ng airbrush!





Our sexy makeup artist T with our very special guest, baby L.






Everybody wants to hold that baby. Check out my super straight hair!! Thank you Tony!







A forgot to click the flash, so this photograph maybe kinda dark. Okay, we're not walking here; we're making like one of them telenovela familias (I cannot, for the life of me, say GG, hindi talaga bagay!! Mwahahahaha)

That was a fun day :)

Christmas-y!

And so it has begun, the rounds of parties and reunions and get-togethers; and I am actually looking forward to all the merriment! I am excited to wrap presents, meet friends, and stuff myself silly with quezo and hamon. Christmas is not just for children, I tell you. Christmas is for us adults as well; it gives us a chance to make like kids and that truly is a wonderful thing!

Here, some Christmas-y images.





Yummy Christmas cake





I always look forward to the holiday window display at Rustan's Makati.






It's all white this year; but my favorite remains the Willy Wonka-ish theme they had a couple of years ago.






Guess who's been nice?! :)






Christmas in Sweden: God Jul!


Happy holidays! :)

Nurse Nightingale Mode

Woke up from a sleepless night; my two boys are sick and I am on worry mode. F & S maybe taller than me, bigger than me but they'll always be my boys. When my friend B joked that she'll only allow her baby son L to have a girlfriend at 39, I laughed. But then, I totally get where she's coming from. When you become a mom, you get another setting: the Nurse Nightingale mode. You fuss over them. You take care of them. You make sure that not even a fly touches their soft skin.

I remember when my boys were little; F was the really sickly type. He got every illness that a baby could get: bronchitis, amoebiasis, sore throat, etc. And when F got a fever, it always shot up really high. S was kinder to me. Not only was his the easiest pregnancy I had among the four, he was also an easy baby to take care of: no-fuss.

But then, whenever they get sick, I'd flutter around like a hummingbird, always checking their temperature, making sure they're comfortable, making sure they're okay. My son K, when he found himself sick once, quickly remarked, "Oh no, Mom's going to get worried again." My son S would actually smile when I'd put my hand on his forehead for the umpteenth time.

I thought that when they get older, I wouldn't feel quite as praning as when they were little; but no, I feel exactly the same way, waking up every four hours to give them their medicine, staying half-asleep so that I could sleepwalk to their rooms to check their temperature. It's exhausting true but then, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Lasagna!

Thursday night found me so stressed out that I decided to make lasagna. What? Make lasagna at seven in the evening? Yes, make lasagna! When my brain is on overload, I turn to the kitchen to calm me down. For me, there's something very relaxing about peeling carrots, dicing onions, and sauteing peppers. Cooking takes you away from the troubles of the day, transporting you into a warm enclave of tastes and smells. I love, for instance, the smell of garlic as it's being sauteed in the pan or the crackle of chicken skin getting crisp in its fat. Wonderful!

So that's how I found myself chopping away, and it was great that my son K volunteered to help me. Here then is my recipe for a fast and cheesy lasagna:

* Ask 12-year-old son K to prepare lasagna by boiling for about 10 minutes or so.
* Start peeling and dicing. My lasagna has more veggie than meat; to a half kilo of ground pork (I use pork because I don't really like the taste of beef), add three big onions, minced; three big carrots, diced; two big bell peppers, diced; and as much diced celery as you want.
* Toss ground pork into pan. When brown, add onions, carrots, bell peppers, and celery. Don't overcook veggies; you want them to be crisp, not soggy. Add in a big pack of Clara Ole three cheese spaghetti sauce; simmer. This is your red sauce.
* Meanwhile, ask K to grate a block of cheese; add cheese to a a third of a block of butter, then toss in two packs of Nestle all purpose cream. This is your white sauce.
* Now prepare lasagna by layering noodles, red sauce, and white sauce in pan then tossing everything in the oven for about 20 minutes.

When the timer clicked, we all gathered around and much like Garfield, wolfed down that beautiful lasagna. Yum!

2019

Watching 2012 left me a bit exhausted. What is it with Roland Emmerich and his unending desire to wreak hell and damnation on Earth? Bad childhood? Repressed feelings of fear and self-loathing? Whatever!

If that scenario was real, I told my kids, I would definitely not survive the reckoning. Of course, I would move heaven and earth to get them to one of those techno-arks but I'll probably just stay behind. I don't want to live in Waterworld (Not that I don't love the water; I love the water but I'd get sick living on it). Where I'd rather be is in 2019, when I'd be one of those cool Asian characters walking under the acid rain in Blade Runner.





I love, love, love this movie! And as much as I'd like to geek out on all its lovely details, I'll just leave you with this ...





Beat that Roland!

Spoon and Fork

And so, here I am making earrings of spoons and forks.




In Quiapo, I fell in love with these cute, little charms and hoarded bunches and bunches of them: spoons, forks, cats, dogs, suns, moons, seashells, fishes. With just a pair of pliers, I started weaving earrings while watching John Cusack drive through yawning cracks of earth, chase an airplane with the map to salvation, and finally, get his son to be the hero in this apocalyptic saga.

It would have been a terribly stressful experience had it not been for my cute charms and trusty pair of pliers. I ended up making dozens in one sitting and thought of selling them in my daughter's online shop.



But before I had even photographed them, E said, "I'll buy from you, Ma. Gifts for my customers this Christmas!" Wow! I feel so accomplished. I have an order for 25 pairs! Bwahahaha

Finally, Christmas!

Last Sunday found me amidst the glitter and grime of Quiapo. My daughter E is in the middle of this project; she is making harness necklaces and needed to get herself more chains. And so, I joined her in this little excursion. You see, I've been thinking of making handmade stuff myself but have no idea as to what. I was hoping that the materials would inspire me.

We had made the rounds of all these little jewelry supplies stores when we thought, well, since we're already in Manila, we might as well go to Divisoria as well. We wanted to go to the street with the all the feathers and ribbons.

And so, we turned a corner and suddenly found ourselves in an intersection filled with wall-to-wall shoppers of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Christmas carols were blaring over the speakers. Sellers were shouting at the top of their lungs, exhorting shoppers to buy their shirts, two for P150 only. Peddlers had their wares atop their heads: the tinsel Christmas trees bobbing up and down with every step. And though the sun was up and it was hot and humid, we were all in good spirits. Every person had a smile on his face. And that's when it dawned on me, it's Christmas: that crazy time of the year when everything turns into one big fiesta of a party.

Ang saya-saya!

Happy holidays! :)