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. 🙂

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!

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! 🙂