Happy New Year 2010 !!!

I am wishing that we all have a Prosperous, Bountiful and a Happy New Year this 2010!

I guess you noticed how busy I am for not updating this blog everyday. How I wish I have all the time to update this blog, clean and arrange the house, take care of a baby, shop and cook and etc. I was thinking that the house should be arranged and clean before New Year comes but I think it won't happen. I'm trying my best to make the impossible become possible and hubby is also doing his best but our body needs to relax and rest so I guess I just have to accept the fact that taking care of a baby is the most important thing we can do and should do. I'm not a superwoman but I wish I am. :)

Merry Christmas ! ! !

Merry Christmas to all! I'm sure everyone's excited to open their presents and to feast the delicious foods on the table. I'm still confused of what to do tomorrow for our Christmas celebration. A friend of mine invited me to go to their house for a Fil-Am caroling party and because of that I'd like to go but half of me wanted to celebrate at home.

Anyways, our Christmas tree is up and it's loaded with ornaments and gifts. I'm finish wrapping the gifts for hubby and Claira but hubby is not wrapping his gifts for me yet. He's waiting for the last minute, sort of a little surprise that I have more gifts to open aside from the ones that my friends gave me. Nice, nice... Hubby thought that almost all of the gifts are for Claira coz my friends gave Claira some gifts too aside from the gifts that we bought for Claira but he also have gifts under the tree. I just cover his name with other gifts so when it's opening time, he'll be surprise that he has more gifts than he expected. Surprise! Surprise! I love to see his reaction when he open his gifts. Santa's been shopping lately for the good husband and baby. hehe

Here's Claira reaching the Santa ornament. :)

And she enjoyed playing the ornaments. haha

There she is again! :)

Wrestling the gift that her Ninang gave her. :)

And here's our Christmas tree as of today. ^_^

Coconut Macaroons

My first try of making coconut macaroons here in US. I cooked coconut macaroons before when I was in the Philippines. The recipe is so simple and easy but I don't have the recipe with me. I decided to try the recipe in one of my cookbooks but it seems like the one in my cookbook is different. I search online for the Philippine recipe of coconut macaroons and found something similar then somebody shared a recipe which I like coz it's simple and easy to follow. What I did was mix the two recipe together and voila, my coconut macaroons were made. I personalize the recipe a little bit, adding almond extract instead of vanilla extract. It's yummy but I think the almond extract is too strong for this. Maybe next time I'll omit the extract and see if it's much better without it. I brought these coconut macaroons to the Fil-Am Xmas party and there's nothing left in the container even if there's a lot of dessert on the table. I'll try to make this again until I get the right taste that I want. :)

Fil-Am Christmas Party

The Filipino-American society here always have a Christmas party every year. For this year, the Fil-Am Christmas party was yesterday Dec. 19, 2009. There were lots of food but we're late so I don't know if I miss good foods. There's only one that I like aside from the food that I brought and it's the milkfish. I don't know how it was cooked but it's delicious. The only problem was it's hard to slice coz it's the whole fish with the head, tail and bones. I was thinking to get it thru my hand but people might think that I'm from the mountain somewhere so I just took a little bit of meat of the milkfish. hehe I was thinking also to bring it home if there's any leftover but we went home before the party ended. Oh well, maybe next Fil-Am party there's a milkfish waiting for me on the table. hahaha

Btw, it's Claira's first Fil-Am Christmas Party so I'm excited to see her reaction when she see Santa. I was hoping that she won't scream and traumatized once she saw Santa coz some babies and kids are afraid of Santa. I don't know why. I was glad that Claira had fun yesterday. She sat on Santa's lap without any problem. She didn't mind when Santa's holding her coz she's more interested with the bow on her gift. haha I had fun chit chatting with friends yesterday but I miss the line dance coz I was carrying Claira. Now my body is aching and looking for a good massage therapist but then I thought that I might have a pocket ache once it's time to pay for the massage done. So never mind, I'll just take advil or tylenol coz it's cheaper. hahaha (Pagka luoy ning pobreng alindahaw). ^_^

Us... ready to party. :)

Other Pinays, their kids and husbands.

As you can see in this pic, many Fil-Am families attended the party yesterday. Some went home early and some arrived late.

Claira and us with Santa and the elf. hehe

Happy mommy and happy baby.

More gifts for Claira from her Ninangs. (ang elf giduka na) hehe

Almost Ready for Christmas

I'm trying to take advantage to go out while the weather is okay, buying stuff that I need for Christmas. So I'm almost done shopping, I'm just waiting if hubby will say something what he needs. He's been busy with work and the house lately and he deserves a good Christmas gifts. I already chose mine, Wii and another game which is like a Dance Revolution which I was dying to do while I was in the Philippines but too shy to do it. Now I can do it whenever I want, it's good for me and for entertaining kids and friends. The only thing hubby needs to do is wrap the gifts. Claira's gifts are ready to be wrapped too, just waiting for me to do it. I'm also preparing a gift for the Fil-Am's Christmas party here for the exchange gift and needs to prepare a gift for Claira on that day too so she can sit on Santa's lap. hehe I'm excited to see Claira's reaction, I hope she won't cry while she's on Santa's lap for picture. There's a lot of things to prepare and I am trying to do them little by little coz I don't want to be in panic this Christmas. Though our Christmas tree is not up yet and the decors outside but that's because I easily get tired of the Christmas tree watching it without the gifts under it after the Christmas day coz hubby wanted to have the Christmas tree until Three Kings. We normally decorate 1 week before Christmas but this year I'm excited to decorate earlier, maybe this week. ^_^

Lazy weeks

Well, not totally lazy to do something but I'm tooooo lazy to go out when it's cold outside. I hate wearing layers of clothes coz they become heavy. So lately I only go out if DH is around to drive. I felt sorry for him coz he works during the day and he goes with us to shop after dinner. I don't even remember of when was the last time I went out without hubby. But last week I went out to have a dinner with my Pinay girl friends for our ladies night out. Then I thought, hmm I hope I still know how to drive or else I have to call my friend and pick me up. haha That's the problem if you're not driving for weeks. I have a cousin who have that issue that she felt like she's going to square one again if she can't drive for weeks. Good thing I was doing ok with my driving last week. Then yesterday I decided to go out with Claira because the weather is okay. It's been raining here lately but not yesterday but it's still cold outside. Anyways, Claira and I went to the mall yesterday. I was thinking that Claira needs to go out once or twice a week but lately we only go out at night. She was sleeping when I pick her up and put her in the car seat but she woke up as soon as she's in the car. I thought she'll go back to sleep once we're on our way to the mall but the opposite happened. She was wide awake and was looking around. I think she miss going out during the day where she can see a lot of stuff so yesterday was an interesting day for her. Maybe that's the reason why she didn't go back to sleep coz she doesn't want to miss anything. I was glad I went to the mall yesterday even if it's cold outside. I can see how happy Claira was once we're at the mall. We shop for hubby's Christmas gifts first then window shopped for ME. hehe Today I plan to go out again which I'm sure will put a big smile on Claira's face again. Gotta get ready for Christmas coz I don't want to go shopping when the mall is over crowded. The last minute shopping is not my thing except if I really need something. ^_^

Holding the Bottle

Yeah, my little one already knows how to hold her bottle. As you can see in the two pictures below, she can hold her bottle and sometimes with one hand only. Amazing! I know that there are babies who doesn't want to hold the bottle themselves even if they can do it. As soon as I know that Claira can hold her bottle, I encourage her to do so after feeding her with solid foods so I can do something else. There were times when she doesn't want to hold her bottle but once I put her hands on the bottle she'll hold it right away which is good coz it gives me time to do something else. But of course I have to tell her to hold her bottle so mommy can work on something and once she hold her bottle I said "thank you". I think it's nice that babies learn to say "thank you" and "please" at an early age. Well, I hope Claira will say those words even to strangers. ^_^

Little but a handful

Our little one learns to sit by herself on thanksgiving day. Hubby and I were surprised to see her sitting while we're busy preparing for the thanksgiving dinner. Claira was amazed that she already know how to sit and she's trying to master it. She still not into crawling though but she knows what to do if she wants to get something that is out of her reach. She drags herself or roll over to go where she wanted to and she knows how to escape from her zone (the one in the first picture). We want her to explore around the house but we want her to be safe too. She's been touching and studying the furnitures in the family room and how she can open them. We don't want to always tell her NO coz that is not good for her. I was reading books again about babies specifically with Claira's age so I know what to expect and how to deal with her when she does something unexpected. She now notice of what she can do to her toys with her little fingers. It's nice to see her learn and grow but she's a handful too. I noticed that her zone looks clutter full of her toys so I put her toys in a pink box and put it beside her zone. She now learn how to get the toys from the pink box but didn't know how to return them yet. I'll teach her how to do that someday when she's old enough to do it herself. As of now, she put her toys anywhere and I put her toys back to the pink box when she's done playing with them but I'll wait til she's playing with something else or she'll be frustrated that I return her toys to the box right away. Well, I think there'll be more clutter to come. She now have an attitude that everything we have is hers too and she wants to taste them all. hahaha

Claira in her zone...

Claira on thanksgiving day. :)