Christmas 2012 Archives - Truly Rich and Blessed

Of Christmas Decorations, Surprise Gifts and Frabelle Foods Honey Glazed Ham! :)

January 12, 2013 by Tina Leave a Comment

I can’t believe it’s almost February! Like I said in one of my earlier posts, we plan to take down our Christmas/Happy Birthday Jesus decorations on February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (or Candlemas)— well, that’s just around the corner — next Sunday! We’re going to miss our simple but meaningful decorations! Hopefully though, we won’t ever forget what they symbolize — the joy and hope and wonder of Jesus’ birth! 🙂

Anyway, you all probably know that during the holy-day season, I was on a sort-of-blogcation. I limited my posts to being focused on Christmas and New Year, and the days after, including our wedding anniversary. (I somehow feel like I still have a hangover from that blogcation, hence the lack of posts here! Added to that, it’s been a really busy month for me — busy BUT blessed! 🙂 Read more about it here, if you like!)

That’s why I wasn’t able to write about SO many other things I wanted to write about after Christmas Day, like the wonderful surprise gifts I got from some blog partners, namely and Mayumi & Me (though I did post photos on !) — they sent me these goodies just because. (Thank you, ladies, you really made my Christmas oh-so-much merrier!)

Medela goodies! 🙂 Perfect for when I give birth and start breastfeeding Baby no. 3! 🙂
Thank you again, dear ! 🙂

This came at JUST the perfect time, when I was wishing that I had a planner!
I was planning to buy the Mommy Mundo’s Mom 24/7 Planner then I got home to find this sweet gift
from ! (God’s timing!) Thank you again, Armi! 🙂

I also wasn’t able to share that a few days before Christmas — just in time — we received a package on our doorstep: a 1kg bag of Frabelle Foods Honey-Glazed Ham!

This came JUST in time, too! 🙂
Because we hadn’t bought ANY ham to complement our Christmas dinner! 🙂

This was a pleasant surprise because I had no prior knowledge nor notice that we’d be receiving anything from Frabelle! 🙂 (God is awesome that way, you know? He even provides for the seemingly “little” things in our lives!)

So how did the ham taste?

Well, Anthony and I thought it was very good! 🙂 (It actually became one of our ulam or viands for breakfast and lunch {and snacks} for a few days! Don’t worry though, I did my best to balance our meals with vegetables and fruits! Umm… “try” being the keyword! Yikes!)

Apparently, Frabelle’s honey-glazed ham tastes the way it does because it’s prepared the classic way — it’s naturally smoked using imported wood chips, and is infused with pure honey that is blow-torched! The ham is made from fresh premium whole-muscle meat (from the pork leg), which makes it really tender.

Of course, the ham didn’t last that long in our household, since we used it to make sandwiches for breakfast and snacks! 🙂

For more information about Frabelle Foods and their other products, visit their website at www.frabelle.com (Look! They have fish products, too! Craving for some salmon now, yum!).

Screenshot from Frabelle’s website

You can also “Like” Frabelle’s facebook page at for regular updates.

Note: I was not compensated financially for this post — all I got was the complimentary piece of homey-glazed ham from Frabelle.

How We’ve Been Celebrating Christmas & the New Year So Far

January 5, 2013 by Tina Leave a Comment

I can’t believe it’s almost been a week since my last post here. Time has flown by really fast and it’s already the sixth day of 2013, already the Feast of the Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas. (Yes, it’s STILL Christmas, folks!)

I’d been meaning to write several posts this week, but, well, life happened. In case you’re curious (and even if you’re not, teehee!), here’s a rundown of what we did on Christmas Eve and the days after: (Please forgive me for the extra-looong post and for bombarding you with photos! 😉 I promise it won’t happen again!)

Christmas Eve was spent with my parents and youngest brother here in our humble apartment. My eldest sister and her family are based in Brunei, and weren’t able to come home, while my older brother and his family spent Christmas in Valenzuela. (I wrote a post describing some of the things we did, and what I believe Christmas is all about on Philstar.com, which you can read here.)

Rysse loved dancing with her Lolo while we prepared for Christmas Eve dinner. 🙂

She loved playing blocks with him too! 🙂 Thanks, Papa! 😉

The kids LOVE having their Tito Jay around! 🙂

Christmas Eve Dinner time! 🙂 Our fare was very simple.
We didn’t have Noche Buena at midnight anymore. 🙂

After dinner, we lit our Christ candle and said our family prayers and sang “O Come All Ye Faithful.”
We let the kids open a few of their gifts. The rest we saved for after Christmas Day Mass.

Then we put up our simple Happy Birthday Jesus / Christmas decor.

The kids were TOO excited and so they placed the Baby Jesus in each of our Nativity sets even before it struck midnight. 🙂 It’s a good thing too, because Rysse fell asleep!

So at midnight, it was only Tim who was awake to sing “Happy Birthday” for Jesus with us. 🙂

On Christmas Day, before going to Mass with my parents, who slept over at our place, the kids got to check out what St. Nicholas had left in their stockings. After Mass, my parents left for Malolos, while we headed home, opened the rest of our gifts and prepared to go to my in-laws’ place.

Happy faces! 🙂

I St. Nicholas made sure to include these notes for the kids. 🙂

After Mass, Rysse got her chance to blow out the candle on Jesus’ birthday cake.

We spent the afternoon at my in-laws’ and had dinner with other family members from my mother-in-laws’ side. We went home early though, so we could play a few “birthday party games” to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. This is me and Tim playing “St. Cecilia‘s Musical Chairs.” (Rysse was too busy with her new tricycle! 😉

On the second day of Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, December 26, we just stayed at home. I read the story of St. Stephen to the kids from their children’s Bible, and we spent the day just enjoying one another’s presence. I had to report to the office on December 27 and 28.

On the fifth day of Christmas, December 29, Tim went bowling for the first time ever, as part of his cousin’s birthday celebration. He had SO much fun! 🙂 And was pretty good for a first-timer! 🙂

The bowling “coach” and his “student” 🙂

Rysse had lots of fun playing with her “best cuz”! while the older kids were bowling. 🙂

We went to Mass on the Feast of the Holy Family (December 30) and bought a few things for the apartment; mostly stuff to help us be more organized — and to help me work from home better! 😉

The kids posing with the Baby Jesus (at our parish)

New Year’s Eve was spent re-arranging and de-cluttering our bedroom (we’re STILL not done yet though — Lord, help us!). I am SOOO happy with the work space my husband came up with for both of us (thank you, Honey!) — one of the BEST gifts ever for the New Year!

The kids had a blast blowing their trumpets and watching the fireworks displays happening all around our apartment at midnight. (I, on the other hand, wanted sooo much to sleep! Ha, ha!) Before midnight, we said a prayer of blessing for the New Year. Prior to that, we had dinner at my in-laws’ place.

New Year’s Day (the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God), found us going to morning Mass and the boys (Anthony and Tim) going for a check-up, as Tim had had intermittent bouts of slight fever, starting the night of December 29. He had also developed a bad cough, and Anthony had had a cough for quite some time. After their check-up and buying the medicine they needed, they joined Rysse and me on a trip to visit our relatives in Malolos, along with my parents and siblings, nephews and nieces.

Fast forward to today, the Feast of the Epiphany.

Work officially started for all of us earlier this week, and I’m already swamped with stuff to proofread, write and edit! Not to mention all the pending blogs posts I’m supposed to write!

Rysse is now sick, too. Our all-around helper will only be arriving next week, so Anthony and I have been busy with work and the kids, etc. (Thank God, though, for our parents, who have been helping us take care of the kids when we can’t do so!)

And, as I mentioned in my New Year post on Philstar.com, we’re still not done de-cluttering / cleaning / reorganizing the apartment. We’ve been doing it in between all the other stuff we need to do so… this is what the other room looks like (please don’t judge me, ha, ha!):

DISASTER AREA! Yikes! I hope to finish fixing this room before Monday!

In fairness to me (ha, ha!), at least I FINALLY was able to finish arranging most of the kids’ books in this new bookshelf we bought. I plan to label each shelf according to the “genres” of books it holds — e.g. faith-themed books, Caldecott Medal winners, Social Studies-themed books, etc. (Yes, I am attempting to be more organized this year!)

I wasn’t able to take a picture of the whole shelf — just the top three layers. 🙂
Thank You, God, for the chance to buy this!

You all know that part of our Advent traditions is unwrapping one (or more) books a day. Well, I was a bit “OC” and wanted to continue that activity at least until Epiphany. 🙂 So far, so good! The kids have thoroughly enjoyed looking for the “book for today” and reading more Christmas and faith-themed stories! 🙂 We’re also still listening to Christmas songs and hymns (we didn’t or avoided doing so as much as possible during Advent) and love greeting one another “Merry Christmas” every morning! 🙂

They’ve also enjoyed moving the Three Wise Men from our nativity set, starting last week.

Yes, our Christmas decorations are still up! 🙂 I plan to take them down on February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which, , is also when the Vatican puts down their Christmas tree and nativity. Cool, huh? 🙂 That’s 40 days for celebrating Christmas! 🙂 I LOVE IT!

Waiting for the Three Kings. 🙂
(This is a pop-up nativity paper doll play set/book I got from Booksale.)

Also waiting for the Three Kings. 😉

What a journey it has been for our Three Wise Men / Kings! 🙂

Tim helped place the numbers 7 to 1 so the Kings / Wise Men would know where to go per day. 🙂

“We’re almost there!” said the Three Kings.
Meanwhile the Kings for our other nativity set (shown here) are patiently waiting behind some books. 🙂

I’m so excited for ~~tomorrow~~ later, when the kids see their Epiphany “gifts” under our Christmas display. I chose the Epiphany to be our first day of “school” for 2013. 🙂

As “gifts” for Epiphany, the kids will be getting these books — Federico and the Magi’s Gift (from Booksale) and The Legend of Old Befana from . 🙂

We’ll be starting with some activities centered on (what else) the Epiphany, and will “row” The Legend of Old Befana for this week. Of course, Tim will also continue his Math, Language Arts and Religion lessons this coming week — we’ll just pick up from where we left off the week before Christmas.

So that’s how we’ve been celebrating Christmas and how our New Year has been so far. Actually, there’s still A LOT more to tell you guys, but I’m getting sleepy and Baby has been moving around a lot in my tummy — probably trying to say, “MAMA! It’s time to rest!”

Anyway, THANK YOU so much again for taking the time to read this post. My latest post on unBLOGGED actually has a few more details, especially about our patron saints / saint companions for this year, and God’s words for me, which I hope will encourage and inspire you somehow, too. Please do read it here if and when you can! 🙂

Oh, and do stay tuned for my next post(s) — My “One Word” for 2013 + My 2013 Blogging Goals + My Life List! 😉 I hope to get these done soonest, plus the other posts I’m supposed to write! 🙂 ~~Wish me luck~~ Pray for me as I pray for you! 🙂 Remember, 2013 is the year for BIGGER, BETTER, BRIGHTER things! 🙂

A Grateful Christmas + Christmas Prayers for You!

December 24, 2012 by Tina Leave a Comment

It has been a hectic, stressful past few days for our family.

Instead of slowing down before Christmas, implementing my plans to de-clutter and clean up our little apartment in time for our little family get-together on Christmas Eve (with my parents and my youngest brother), and preparing for our “birthday party” for Jesus on Christmas Day, we found ourselves rushing our little girl to the emergency room due to continuous vomiting, and taking turns caring for her (thank God for my husband and my mom and dad, who helped out in so many ways).

Because my mom and husband were there to care for little Therese, Tim and I were still able to go to the Lighthouse (the office building where all of Bro. Bo Sanchez’s ministries are housed) Christmas party (all four of us were supposed to go), and I was still able to join our department’s presentation. 🙂 My dad also came by and ended up staying overnight, much to the kids’ delight.

Yes, that’s me in the middle with Tim, in between my fellow presenters/singers. (Yes, that’s Martine of Dainty Mom in the long dress, singing with us! 🙂 She’s the managing editor of one of our mags, for tweens.)

The day after though, I found myself with a severe lower backache in the evening — after bringing Therese for her follow-up check up, buying her medicines and cleaning up at home. By that time, she was feeling much better (thank You, Lord!) so her dad had left to attend a reunion with his “guy pals,” and my parents had already gone home.

After putting the kids to bed, I found myself crying in pain. Thank God I fell asleep soon after saying my prayers and asking for healing.

As you can guess, I’m feeling much better now — save for the cold and sore throat that have been bothering me since yesterday, and a slight backache — hence this blog post. Which brings me to the ultimate reason behind it.

As Christmas is only less than 10 hours away, at least in my part of the world, I just want to tell you how grateful I am.

Yes, we live in a world that seems crazy and twisted at times… Where children get gunned down or stabbed by madmen… where natural disasters can wreak havoc on homes and lives… Even so close to Christmas…

Yet, there is still A LOT to be grateful for… A lot to thank God for…

Of course, it’s a given that I’m thankful for the gift of Christ this Christmas. After all, He is the Reason for the season.

Photo from the

And I am grateful for my family and friends, my new “big boss” and officemates, and brethren in our Catholic community. For , pro-lifers, , and fellow Catholic bloggers from all over the world! And even the strangers who have become my friends in a way, because they are praying for our baby, especially after I posted the truth about my pregnancy.

I’m thankful that God healed Therese quickly, and that He is healing me, too. I was dreading spending Christmas in the hospital, as Therese almost had to be confined to prevent dehydration. I thank God, too, for all the people who prayed with us for her and followed my updates about her progress on and !

A little thinner now, but much better! Thank you to everyone who prayed for her! 🙂

I thank God for the job that He blessed me with this year, one that allows me to homeschool and spread His love to other people, especially to kids! I thank Him for the additional income streams, both passive and active, that He’s blessed our family with. I thank Him for the chance to touch others’ lives through my writing.

I thank Him for our new home, something which we almost gave up on. I thank Him for the surprise of Anthony’s new job, one that allows him to spend more time with our family and bless others through ministry work and special events.

I thank Him for SO MANY BLESSINGS actually.

I thank Him for YOU, dear readers, whom I would like to call my friends as well. Thank you for reading this little ol’ blog of mine, and for keeping in touch with me through , and email. Thank you for reading my articles on Smart Parenting, Philstar.com, World Moms Blog and elsewhere.

Thank you, too, to all , past and present! For believing in me and trusting me as a blogger, even if I am relatively new! For blessing our family, especially our homeschooling, through our partnerships!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making my blog what it is today, dear readers and partners! You’re part of my “I am grateful to God for…” list! 🙂

From my family to yours, I want to wish you a BLESSED CHRISTMAS and a BOUNTIFUL NEW YEAR! 🙂 May your Christmas — all 12 days of it — be truly merry and bright, with the light of the Christ child and His peace and hope filling your hearts and homes for all the days to come!

To end, here are my Christmas prayers for you:

Photo source here.

P.S. I plan to take a blogcation so I can focus on spending time with my loved ones. But you’ll probably see me active on Facebook and Twitter! 🙂 Leaving you now with a few photos of how we’ve prepared for our Christmas celebration this evening (the Happy Birthday Jesus decorations will only come up later, when the kids are asleep, so they’ll be surprised tomorrow morning on Christmas Day! 😉