Donald, Ella, Daddy, Eman, Moi
How to grow bitter gourd
Posted on 2009 under Donald, Ella, expressions, treasured moments | 2 Comments14 Dec
—is easy. Buy a mature bitter gourd that you can use for your Pinakbet or other dish. Cut it in half and remove the seeds. Set it aside while you do the cooking. When you’re done, throw the vegetable peelings with the seeds in your backyard and wait until it sprouts.
This is ampalaya (bitter gourd) from the neighbor’s backyard. Manang Inday’s sister owned the house and they are not staying here so we are didn’t steal it. hehehehe. And I think it was from the Pinakbet that Manang Inday cooked several weeks ago. I noticed a little fruit hanging on a tree while I was doing the laundry last December 2 and I was very thrilled because we didn’t plant anything there…but we dumped something there. LOL
I didn’t notice it’s already September if I am not counting the days for Eman’s next doctor’s visit, laboratory and diagnostic tests and so on. I always look forward for this month when I was still a kid because it means December is near. I just love December because it’s my birth month and because I grew up celebrating Noche Buena, decorating our little house with Christmas decors and going around the neighborhood with my childhood friends to sing Christmas carols for a coin or two from the homeowners who are either happy or annoyed that we are there again. Anyway, since we will be moving back here in Davao…I think I can put a little tree for the kids. We don’t observe Christmas but I wanted to let them feel what I have felt when I was little everytime I hear carols and see lights on the trees and lanterns. We didn’t put one last year since we live in the parsonage. I also would love to put some gifts underneath the tree and play Christmas songs. I hope nobody from the church except my family can read this. 
Anway, I should be looking for a nice gift for Mama Ingrid. Her birthday will be next month and I am thinking about sending her save the date postcards that has the kids photos along with some native keyrings and hoping the budget will allow me to get her a nice native handbag.
Christmas will be over in just a few hours. After the fun and the visitors are gone, the real work and the cursing starts. 
Dishes pile almost up to the ceiling and you see the house is total wreck. The carpet needs to be taken cared of with that chocolate stain and dog’s pee, little hand prints on the counter, wood tiled floor on some part of the house looks as though it wasn’t polished for years, matresses that needs to be cleaned…..a lot of work that needs to be done. Read more… »
a warm Christmas greetings to all who are celeberating Christmas as well as the ones who aren’t. It was like a tradition that we are “celebrating” it together with my sisters, BIL and Uncle Tony and Auntie Carmen (BIL’s parents). I don’t want to create some discussion debate but the reason we don’t have Christmas is that we don’t believe that Jesus Christ was born on the 25th of December. Hey, hey….don’t shoot any questions because I can’t answer you. Why we still have a feast during Christmas eve and give presents on this day is because we grew up with a Catholic father who observes this holiday and because there are kids in the family. It’s harder now that Ella has so many questions about Santa and Christmas. She gets pretty excited each time she see Christmas trees with lots of ornaments and lights. She was very delighted and gamely posed at the tree and the chimney at SM the other day.
Sorry for the photo but I already picked the best shot. I don’t know why Donald can’t take decent pictures.
Ella has been trying to get everyone a gift and that’s what she succesfully did last night when we went out to do a little shopping. Donald, Crislyn and I started off at nearly 4pm while Ella who was taking a nap at that time was left with Cheche. It was good that she and Cheche followed us at the mall just in time that we already purchased her gift from us. The whole time she’s with her Tita’s, she was picking gifts for me and when she’s with me, she points at the stuffs that Donald might need. In short, she picks, we pay. 
So the little girl was very excited and as soon as arrived here at the house, she started wrapping gifts.
I wasn’t feeling like blogging tonight because I am dead tired but there’s a very significant event for our little girl that I couldn’t resist sharing. It’s their Christmas program/party at school this morning and both I and Donald went to party with her. We were in a rush because the program will start at 8am yet we were still about to leave the house at that time. We even hailed a cab even it’s just two blocks away because I am afraid that Ella will miss their class presentation only to see that there are only few kids and parents inside that came before us. Was I surprised? Absolutely no because here in the Philippines when the time that was set is 8am, expect that the program will start an hour late. That’s so called Filipino Time. 
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Christmas is really in the air even in this small town this side of the earth. It’s my favorite time of the year not only because my it’s my birth month but because I feel really happy seeing beautiful lights, hearing carols and watching TV shows that has Christmas theme. It also reminds me of my mother who did all what she can just to make this season merrier for us. She would decorate our little house with ornaments that she dug from the box and has been reused for several years. There would also be a tiny tree on top of the side table which she carefully made. Being resourceful as she is, we never did have a store bought tree but a handmade one out of recycled materials. Read more… »
