Makin My List and Checking It Twice, Thrice...

Last year around the first week of December, I put in an order to the Baguio Country Club for 100 loaves of their famously yummy raisin bread.

By the third week of December, our family driver, Arnel, was making scheduled trips around town delivering the abovementioned loaves to various friends, an assortment of cousins, aunts and uncles, and former co-workers.

I was also in a frenzy, combing bazaars and malls for last-minute gifts for my immediate family and godchildren.

And that didn't even include the number of presents I had to buy for my current co-workers.

Our dining room table had morphed into Santa's worktable, strewn with gift wrapping paper, cards, and various gift-wrapping accessories like scissors, ribbons, and tape.

It was Gift Giving Gone Wild.

This year, I look back and think. I have not seen or hung out with 100+ people during the year.

You might say I'm a Scrooge, but this year, I am going to throw caution into the wind and apply the rule of Christmas Presence. Meaning, if I don't see you or your family during the month of December - when the Christmas parties, reunions, get-togethers start rolling in - then we must not be that close that we haven't managed to make the time to so much as catch up for coffee or a quick dessert to exchange presents. Busy schedules be damned. The holidays are supposed to be meant for people who matter to us. And making life better for others. And giving of yourself. Not 100 gifts sent out by routine to people who you haven't seen, probably will not be seeing for some time - because they are too busy, you are too busy, or you just plain don't want to make time for each other.

After all, if you matter to me, I sure as hell will be making the time to catch up with you during the holidays (and vice versa). I will even make a concession and consider the latter part of November or early part of January (for a post New Year celebration) as within the gift giving period.

But if we haven't made the time to meet up at all for the last quarter of the year, let alone the entire 2008, then it doesn't matter whether you've been good or bad. I'm not Santa Claus. So, me...I'm going for simplicity and crossing one more person off my gift list.

It just doesn't make sense to give presents mechanically and out of habit, does it? And all that spare change - or money that would have gone to buying gifts out of routine...I will make sure they find their way to a good cause and help some other people who are in need of something more than the obligatory fruit cake.

Happy Birthday, Lola

Today would have been my Lola Juliana's 105th birthday. Sadly, she died almost 18 years ago. Her husband and my lolo, Gregorio Zamuco, lived for another 17 years, only finally saying goodbye to all of us last year just a couple months shy of his 107th birthday.

Charly's middle name - Julianne - is after her great-grandmother. Even in the ultra-sound pictures, I could see that Charly had inherited my lola's chin.

It doesn't feel like 18 years since lola passed away. I still remember how her face used to light up when the whole family would come over to Los Banos, as well as her home-cooked dishes and the fruits she used to make 'pabaon' to us on the way back to Manila from Los Banos. How she used to tut-tut and shake her head when my dad always arrived late (thus also making the whole family late) to yet another of our reunions. Most of all, I can still see how she would sit on the front porch, her hand tucked into lolo's hand.

On one of our visits, she gave my dad a small grafting that he planted in our backyard. That grafting is now a big, solid tree that doesn't flower much year round.

But every year, around her birthday (and mine - for my birthday is only 6 days away from hers), that tree comes in full bloom.

A sure reminder that she is still watching over us from somewhere up there.

Happy Birthday, Lola. We miss you guys.

Hopefully Not A Sign of Things To Come

Earlier this evening, I was on the phone with my mom while the hubby was reading Charly a bedtime story.

15 minutes later, Charly comes out of the room looking for me.

Charly (plaintively): "Mom, Dad is asleep."

Me: "What do you mean? He fell asleep while reading to you?"

Charly: "Yeah. He's asleep. Mom, please come inside with me."

I quickly got off the phone, just as the hubby comes out shaking his head at Charly and - come to think of it, at me too for having fallen for Charly's latest scam.

David: "Charly, you said you were just going to give mom a goodnight kiss."

Charly (looking caught): "Oh. haha. I want mom to go inside the room too."

Did she just do what I think she did? She actually conned both parents to get them to do what she wanted.

She knew David would not let her go out of the room just to bug me to come in. And she knew I would not go in without a good reason because she was already supposed to be in bed.

It was cute. We had a good laugh at her sneaky mind and tactics.

A sense of foreboding however tells me that a few years from now we will not be laughing if she pulls something like this on us as a teenager.

Birthday Girl

One of the most satisfying, heartwarming things about blogging is having your friends (and even people you haven't met) leave little comments.

Knowing that some of my posts strike a chord, make someone laugh, or just make someone else feel that they aren't alone in the ups and downs that are unique to motherhood is more than enough to make my day. And gives me the inspiration to keep on noticing the little everyday things that tell you life is good. Very good.

This one goes out to my dear friend, Jackie. Thanks for all the comments that give me the fuzzies.

Happy Birthday! May you and Brian soon be blessed with little ones that warm your heart the way Charly does mine.

The Missing Leaf

I recently discovered the Market Manila site and I seriously recommend this to anyone who has lamented over the lack of ingredients available in our local supermarkets. In this site, I've discovered fellow foodies in search for the missing ingredient to make their home cooked dishes taste oh so much better. 

Take, for example, the kaffir lime. I cannot say the words without a smile flitting across my face. For David and me, it is like the holy grail of Thai cuisine.

A few years ago, we loaded 6 lbs. (yes SIX POUNDS) of assorted curry pastes and dried kaffir lime leaves onto our carry on bags coming home from Thailand. We were very fortunate that no one took an interest in our stash and confiscated them. I would have put up a fight, let me tell you.

But despite the dried kaffir lime leaves, our Thai dishes were still missing that oomph that we longed for. Dried just wasn't enough.

Then one day, sometime in June, we chanced upon a lone kaffir lime plant in Tiendesitas. We looked at it in hushed reverence. As David rubbed the leaf to take a whiff, we almost could not believe our good fortune. We rushed home with the plant, rustled up some Thai red curry and closed our eyes in delight as the missing pieces of the puzzle (or in this case, missing ingredient) fell into place.

And now, thanks to Market Manila, I've hooked up with some fellow kaffir lime enthusiasts who can sell us both the plants and the fruit. It's still not easy, but there are plants to be had. And since the leaves sell for about P10-15 each, having a plant is a smart move.

For those of you who have not heard about kaffir lime, it is the ingredient that adds an unmistakable refreshing taste that is characteristic of many Thai soups and curries.  The leaves have a strong, fragrant flavor that cannot be replicated easily. Without the kaffir lime leaves, your tom yum soup or red or green thai curry will not be the same.

So, if you're into spicy food, let me know. I've just about perfected my Thai curry.

This One Falls Under My List of Things I Wish I'd Taken A Picture of But Didn't...

This seen on a black sleeveless t-shirt worn by an older male guest at a wedding I attended recently:

"If you think sex is a pain in the ass, you're doing it wrong."

I so wanted to take a picture of that man. Preferably beside the newly wedded couple because that has got to be advice for the honeymoon night if I ever saw one.

But propriety won and my camera stayed politely shut. 

You just have to take my word for it.