the thing I'm thrilled to miss

This is the time of year when people with two left feet like me (in fact, I believe I have 4 left feet because even my arms don't know which direction to go) are forced to humiliate themselves in office Christmas party presentations. 

This is the time of the year when perfectly respectable, highly-regarded colleagues are reduced to lowly back-up dancers who still manage to degrade themselves by messing up their minuscule part because of their unbelievable lack of dancing talent (I've badly played a tree and a lamp in past Christmas party presentations!) and the embarrassing requirement to maintain a big cheerleader smile during the dance (seriously, why does a tree need to paste that horrid chesire-cat smile with matching raised eyebrows and enlarged eyes?). 

This is the time of year when people who conduct themselves with exceptional grace & dignity in the boardroom fall from grace in one swift (though it seems to take forever while it's happening), uncoordinated performance.

So now that I'm on sabbatical from work, I am thrilled that I am missing the office Christmas party presentations!

Photo from annnniegirl.

Funny how about the same time last year here, I was feeling the exact same dread, except then, I couldn't miss it. Click here for a previous post on motherhood-related things I am, on the other hand, thrilled I am not missing. 

my trusty elf

I don't know why I put off putting up our Christmas tree for so long (as you might remember from here and here). Turns out I have an eager assistant to help me.

Though I could argue Noah was more of the boss than the assistant. He insisted on putting the trimmimgs before the lights because I still needed our handyman's help on the latter (half of every set wouldn't light up). He insisted on starting with our Disney ornaments - the one battle I won that day. And insisted he put the star before we were done with the trimmimgs.

Yes, my trusty elf was uber eager! I found myself trying to slow down my excited assistant throughout the process. And he eventually finished off with hanging our Disney ornaments - to his delight! 

They (Rapunzel, Lady & the Tramp and Chip & Dale) have got their backs turned (and some balls of the same color & size are too close together for my liking) but it doesn't matter. The important thing is Noah loved every minute of it!

Photos are all my own.

Click here for a previous post on our Disney trimmings.

wonder lost?

Noah recently declared that he doesn't believe in Santa anymore. The news broke my heart a little. Okay, a lot. And I was grappling with how to deal with this new reality.

At first, I thought of bombarding him with the Santa proof here (and even add this new one here). But I later decided it didn't make sense to convince him Santa is real, when he really actually isn't.

It took me a while to figure out why it affected me so much. Watching Rise of the Guardians helped me realize that it wasn't mere wistfulness at my 7-year old boy growing up so fast that bothered me. It was a fear that he would lose what believing in Santa represents.

In the movie, Santa showed nesting dolls of his character - how he's seen as jolly or even mysterious. But his "center" - the smallest Santa doll was wide-eyed because Santa's "center" - is wonder.

That's what I was afraid Noah would lose... Childlike wonder... The ability to marvel at magic and have faith in a fairytale's happy ending.

Then at bedtime on the day we watched Rise of the Guardians, Noah urged me to pray that he wouldn't have a bad dream. I was still distraught and so grabbed the opportunity to push another childhood myth from the movie on him, "But Sandman will make sure you have good dreams." He adamantly replied, "That's fantasy, not reality!", and demanded we pray. Immediately after our prayer, he was okay - suddenly unafraid. And I realized he hadn't lost the ability to marvel at magic & believe in a happy ending. He believes in God's miraculous power. And that's the only real magic there is anyway. :) 

Photos are from here, here and here.

Rise of the Guardians is showing now in cinemas. Collect Rise of the Guardian toys with your McDonald's Happy Meal!

alternate route

The Habagat in August destroyed the main road in our area that leads to C5. Sadly, it has been taking so long to fix. So I've had to take an alternate route to bring the kids to school. And I have to admit, the sights along the alternate route were a pleasant surprise. I pass this really old church...

... and some old houses...

... that I feel like I'm transported to an alternate world - ironically, just a few minutes before I enter the bustling Ortigas CBD of modern high-rise buildings.

I've come to enjoy the few seconds each day that I pass these ancient structures. I feel like I'm on a field trip to Old Manila every day. Oddly, without knowing the name of the church or how old these sights really are, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling to just be passing these old buildings - that I imagine to be teeming with the character of a remarkable history.

Photos are my own.

my Monica-closet house

My house is not the unbelievable, disastrous mess you see as the "before" in the show Clean House. But just like Monica (see more of my Friends obsession here), I've got a closet... okay, a corner... fine! corners and drawers... that are shamefully piled high with category-less clutter.

Now that I have time on my hands (see related post here), I've been cleaning out those closets, corners & drawers that have accumulated clutter since we moved in 8 years ago. Am far from done but so far, I've unearthed 2 VHS players, 3 telephones, 3 vacuum cleaners - all in the storage cabinets under the stairs.

I also found my Advantix rolls, so organized in their special box. 

This, together with film negatives and "developed" photos, are now in the box of photos here.

I also found these casette tapes... 

I have always been an OST lover. Do you remember Ally McBeal and Reality Bites? The Apo & Michael V ones are my hubby's. No one has owned up to owning the Randy Santiago tape though. Amazing how we still have a brand new tape (which has a price tag at the back of P47, just in case you wanted to know).

The Basia CD isn't even mine! Borrowed it from my friend S in college and turns out, I never returned it! Eeep! 

Notice the masking tape label on the Workshy CD? That was for our wedding - to guide the music guy on which tracks to play and when. How primitive huh? The hubby and I scrambled to put these labels on our CDs the day before our wedding! When wedding coordinators and digitally-organized-playlists didn't exist yet.

I also found stacks & stacks of Isabella's childhood books and VHS tapes. After taking out those that can be handed down to Noah and my nieces, I gathered everything up for donation to the Philippine Toy Library. I have to admit I was teary-eyed the day I said goodbye to my baby girl's books & Veggie Tales movies. But the idea that they would now make other children happy felt pretty good.

So far, this de-cluttering has been a dusty yet delightful trip down memory lane. :)

Photos are my own and from here.

Click here for the ofdotsnthings version of this post. Click here for another ancient thing about my wedding. 

Philippine Toy Library is a group of volunteer-friends who provide the experience of play to Filipino children living in cramped, congested areas. PTL transforms idle spaces in barangays/schools/parishes into fun & educational playrooms to keep kids off the streets. Drop-off point for donations is near Ateneo, behind Kenny Rogers, at 56 Esteban Abada Street Loyola Heights, QC (zip code is 1108 in case you want to send them a box of toys just like a friend of mine from Singapore recently did). So go and de-clutter your homes, donate to PTL & bring joy to more Filipino kids.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

Discovering here that there are things I would have missed had I been at work, I got to thinking about how much I must have missed when Isabella was growing up. It gave me an awful, awful feeling.

Since I didn't have the luxury of taking a break from work then, I started to wonder if work got in the way of mothering when Isabella was a young child. I began to get neurotic, wondering if Isabella's low regard for tidy hair is my fault after all. She didn't seem to adopt the habit of brushing her hair before leaving the house so it is always quite unkempt.

And I wonder if this is because I never spent time fixing her hair when she was a young child. At most, I gathered her hair in pigtails or a ponytail. But I never gave her a fancy braid like this.

Brushing Isabella's hair took only a second or two. And maybe that's why she takes just about that much time with her hair today.

Is this one of those things I missed - one of those things I didn't get to teach her - because I was at work? Had I devoted a bit more time to fixing her hair, would she be sporting a pretty braid like this today?

Awful, awful feeling. Am I right to be guilty? Or is my neurosis showing yet again?

Photos from acupofjo. If it's not too late for you, check out Jo's blog for her pretty hair tutorials.

Click here for previous posts from the Oops, My Neurosis Is Showing... series. Click here for the ofdotsnthings version of this post.

pretty storefront boards

These Coming Soon boards of Laduree (in Hong Kong) and Kate Spade (in Manila)...

... are so pretty, I'm not sure I want the stores to open because it will mean the boards will come down. :(

Photos are my own.

Click here for the ofdotsnthings version of this post.