Christmas Merry, New Year... can only get better.
Happy New Year blogosphere! And to the two to three readers I have (that's you Mom and Carlo and Tita Annette if you ever bothered to come back) I'm sorry for the recent neglect. I think I was doing well, averaging two entries a week until December crept in and ruined everything. Dagnabbit! What happened last month? Certainly the most logical explanation to my not blogging is that LIFE was happening, right? But I gave birth last March and that barely slowed me down. Not to mention I didn't even go Christmas shopping. So what was it? Hm. Well, there was Baguio. But after that there was also another thing.
I mentioned before about the not shopping thing last year and why. The thing I didn't share was that the thought that made me ok about not giving gifts, was I was able to think of something I could make to give my relatives instead. And not just a card that says "A donation has been made in your name..." I said to myself, I know! I'll make desk calendars for EVERYBODY! Seriously, that thought made it that much easier to write our contribution check. Until I actually started planning and computing and realized I would have to make almost 40 calendars. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Ha. And not just one kind of calendar but three, for each clan we belong to. So there, by the time I realized it was a bigger undertaking than I originally thought, I invested already and had to surge on. So now you know where my entire December went. Instead of taking advantage of the amazingly unprecedented Christmas sales, I was buried in Photoshop, designing three desk calendars. From scratch. As in I had to put all those numbers in all those months one by one.
And then printing. Oh the printing! I had no idea I would spend that much on ink! Without giving away how much I actually spent, let me just say the calendars cost three times more than I thought they would. We still spent just a fraction of what we would have had I actually given gifts this Christmas, but still! The ink expense was preposterous. For that reason alone I just might never do this again.
Or maybe I'll do it again only smaller. But then the photos won't come out nice. Oh whatever! I don't know. I'll do it again if people ask for it. But if no one asks, then that just goes to show they prefer gifts bought from the store rather than calendars with their relatives faces. Haha!
(Carlo, I ran out of calendars to send to you, but I'll make the images available for your download soon so you can make them your desktop wallpaper or print them out yourself, if you like. Or I could make one in time for when you come home in March.)
So how did I feel about Christmas with no shopping? I must admit, it was one of the, if not the most stress free Christmas I've had in a while. Especially since getting married, I've had to think of Mike's family as well as mine for Christmas, not to mention his staff and various associates. And while I really enjoy going out and searching and hunting for things that people will love, I also enjoyed not having to make myself go out there to join the Christmas fray (although I heard there wasn't much of a fray this year until like a day or two before Christmas). And it certainly helped that I was busy working on my calendar project at home that I couldn't leave the house even if I wanted to.
So, the no shopping thing was surprisingly fun. However I predict a backlash because I've already started shopping for Christmas decor. I told Mike, in case another cause comes our way I could say, sorry, you're going to take that money out of your gadget budget cause I already spent for Christmas!
Christmas itself felt a little weird because... well, there were barely any gifts under our tree, and I missed wrapping presents. In this one blog I follow she talked about how she never buys Christmas wrapper anymore ever and she showed how she recycles plastic shopping bags and cereal cartons into the niftiest bows and boxes and I'm all, I want to do that! But had no gifts to wrap. And it was embarrassing how many gifts we received. I really didn't expect to get anything this year, I thought everyone would just donate (or maybe not donate but tell us they did. haha! di naman.) But we got a lot of cool stuff. Thank you family!
Anyway, Christmas Eve was nice because everyone liked the calendars. Mike's mom liked the Juan version so much she would have ordered ten more if she could. Mike gave her his copy. I think she gave that extra copy to her own mother, Lola Tentay. And the Mantaring and Lapid calendars were well received as well during Noche Buena in Katipunan. My Dad even suggested that for next year, I make a big wall version. I'm like, give me a big colored printer for Christmas! But on second thought, don't cause if I make the calendars any bigger than their present size, they will cost so much we wouldn't have any money left to donate to whatever cause.
On Christmas Day, I think the calendars were buried under a mountain of all the other cool stuff my cousins received. I really wished I could have given my cousins nice things. Cause they were sooo thoughtful to Lia and Desi this year. We got a huge pile of musical instruments, the girls just loved them. And bags, and matching sweaters... and lots of toys! Aw. I was hoping they'd like the calendars anyway. Hopefully they find them useful and keep them on their desks all year.
Anyway, so that was Christmas. It was certainly different. It made me pause and reflect on what it's all about. I know it's not about stuff, but giving stuff is a tradition that lets the people you love know that you love them. Next year, I don't know. Maybe I'll make some of my gifts and buy some of my gifts, but definitely, I'd like to give at least part of the Christmas budget to people who need it more than we do. And maybe it's calendars, and maybe not. I don't know yet. We'll see next year.
***
New Year. Well, it's January 3. So far, two thirds of 2009 has been spent either throwing up or writhing in pain or sleeping away the pain. I'm better now. Well enough to blog, thank God. But I wasn't well enough to take advantage of the Zara sale today, or to attend a friends' kids' birthday party yesterday. Mike even brought me to the emergency room and they gave me medicine through IV. Oh, guess what I have. GASTRITIS! Familiar right? So I know what you're thinking. And no, I'm not pregnant. Yes I'm sure! I took a pregnancy test almost as soon as I got back from the hospital. I didn't really have to because I also took that test after we got back from Macau and it's negative negative negative. Sorry, would-be grandparents for a third time. No. I refuse to have three babies in four years. I haven't even potty trained the first one yet. Leamealone.
I mentioned before about the not shopping thing last year and why. The thing I didn't share was that the thought that made me ok about not giving gifts, was I was able to think of something I could make to give my relatives instead. And not just a card that says "A donation has been made in your name..." I said to myself, I know! I'll make desk calendars for EVERYBODY! Seriously, that thought made it that much easier to write our contribution check. Until I actually started planning and computing and realized I would have to make almost 40 calendars. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Ha. And not just one kind of calendar but three, for each clan we belong to. So there, by the time I realized it was a bigger undertaking than I originally thought, I invested already and had to surge on. So now you know where my entire December went. Instead of taking advantage of the amazingly unprecedented Christmas sales, I was buried in Photoshop, designing three desk calendars. From scratch. As in I had to put all those numbers in all those months one by one.
And then printing. Oh the printing! I had no idea I would spend that much on ink! Without giving away how much I actually spent, let me just say the calendars cost three times more than I thought they would. We still spent just a fraction of what we would have had I actually given gifts this Christmas, but still! The ink expense was preposterous. For that reason alone I just might never do this again.
Or maybe I'll do it again only smaller. But then the photos won't come out nice. Oh whatever! I don't know. I'll do it again if people ask for it. But if no one asks, then that just goes to show they prefer gifts bought from the store rather than calendars with their relatives faces. Haha!
(Carlo, I ran out of calendars to send to you, but I'll make the images available for your download soon so you can make them your desktop wallpaper or print them out yourself, if you like. Or I could make one in time for when you come home in March.)
So how did I feel about Christmas with no shopping? I must admit, it was one of the, if not the most stress free Christmas I've had in a while. Especially since getting married, I've had to think of Mike's family as well as mine for Christmas, not to mention his staff and various associates. And while I really enjoy going out and searching and hunting for things that people will love, I also enjoyed not having to make myself go out there to join the Christmas fray (although I heard there wasn't much of a fray this year until like a day or two before Christmas). And it certainly helped that I was busy working on my calendar project at home that I couldn't leave the house even if I wanted to.
So, the no shopping thing was surprisingly fun. However I predict a backlash because I've already started shopping for Christmas decor. I told Mike, in case another cause comes our way I could say, sorry, you're going to take that money out of your gadget budget cause I already spent for Christmas!
Christmas itself felt a little weird because... well, there were barely any gifts under our tree, and I missed wrapping presents. In this one blog I follow she talked about how she never buys Christmas wrapper anymore ever and she showed how she recycles plastic shopping bags and cereal cartons into the niftiest bows and boxes and I'm all, I want to do that! But had no gifts to wrap. And it was embarrassing how many gifts we received. I really didn't expect to get anything this year, I thought everyone would just donate (or maybe not donate but tell us they did. haha! di naman.) But we got a lot of cool stuff. Thank you family!
Anyway, Christmas Eve was nice because everyone liked the calendars. Mike's mom liked the Juan version so much she would have ordered ten more if she could. Mike gave her his copy. I think she gave that extra copy to her own mother, Lola Tentay. And the Mantaring and Lapid calendars were well received as well during Noche Buena in Katipunan. My Dad even suggested that for next year, I make a big wall version. I'm like, give me a big colored printer for Christmas! But on second thought, don't cause if I make the calendars any bigger than their present size, they will cost so much we wouldn't have any money left to donate to whatever cause.
On Christmas Day, I think the calendars were buried under a mountain of all the other cool stuff my cousins received. I really wished I could have given my cousins nice things. Cause they were sooo thoughtful to Lia and Desi this year. We got a huge pile of musical instruments, the girls just loved them. And bags, and matching sweaters... and lots of toys! Aw. I was hoping they'd like the calendars anyway. Hopefully they find them useful and keep them on their desks all year.
Anyway, so that was Christmas. It was certainly different. It made me pause and reflect on what it's all about. I know it's not about stuff, but giving stuff is a tradition that lets the people you love know that you love them. Next year, I don't know. Maybe I'll make some of my gifts and buy some of my gifts, but definitely, I'd like to give at least part of the Christmas budget to people who need it more than we do. And maybe it's calendars, and maybe not. I don't know yet. We'll see next year.
***
New Year. Well, it's January 3. So far, two thirds of 2009 has been spent either throwing up or writhing in pain or sleeping away the pain. I'm better now. Well enough to blog, thank God. But I wasn't well enough to take advantage of the Zara sale today, or to attend a friends' kids' birthday party yesterday. Mike even brought me to the emergency room and they gave me medicine through IV. Oh, guess what I have. GASTRITIS! Familiar right? So I know what you're thinking. And no, I'm not pregnant. Yes I'm sure! I took a pregnancy test almost as soon as I got back from the hospital. I didn't really have to because I also took that test after we got back from Macau and it's negative negative negative. Sorry, would-be grandparents for a third time. No. I refuse to have three babies in four years. I haven't even potty trained the first one yet. Leamealone.