Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We’re off to a great feast hosted by my mother-in-law. She cooks the best Roasted Turkey, pumpkin pie and the famous cranberry sauce. All I needed to bring was anything green. I bought fresh broccoli and spinach yesterday and am just going to make cheesy broccoli and Adobong Spinach (much like the KangKong Version). I hope you all can come with us but if you can’t I’ll think of you while I take a spoonful of creamy delicious mashed potatoes covered with gravy.

It’s time to thank God and celebrate His goodness.

Packing up for the holidays can be a nightmare. There are a thousand questions about what is a trendy color to wear this season, have I got the right accessories for that little black dress, am I going to be warm enough in case my family decides to go ice-skating or skiing? And just when I’m about to zip my bags shut I realized that the sweater I packed was so outdated, even Grandma looks better in her house dress. And the latest bling I tucked away? It is tarnished and dull looking after I used it once for a party. Here I was in the middle of my bedroom, in the middle of a chaotic mess, trying to make sense as to my wardrobe plan for this upcoming romantic weekend holiday.

My solution? Go to KMart.Com. I’m sure they have the greatest deals. Just like the grey Kimono Wrap under $30.00 is a steal. I can’t decide if it’s black, light ash or grey sage that I want. I could use the black one for my exotic dinner over at the uber-high end sushi bar, the light ash for Thanksgiving Dinner and the grey sage when we head out to a walk in the woods. Solution number one came so quick I have time to shop for something else.

As you all know I have a love affair with everything gold. I could not pass the opportunity to get 30% savings on a 1/4ct tw Diamond 5-Stone Journey Pendant and Earrings Set in 10K Yellow Gold. It’s the best deal there is. In the course of my years here in Massillon, every time I have a gold rush (wanting to see gold and buy it), I’d spend hours looking through the glass cases in the Jewelry section of Kmart. I am their number one satisfied customer. They were always courteous, prompt and I know that when I buy my latest earrings, I am getting the real deal.

My husband is beeping his horn. It’s time to leave for New York City. How am I going to get this in 7 business days? Here’s the solution, I shipped it expedited and will get my “loot” even before I say hurrah’s. Just when I lightened my luggage, zipped it close and headed for the door, the phone riang. It’s my aunt saying she just heard about her other niece and her 5 kids and her 3 dogs and a husband, who all decided to stay with us for the weekend. She wanted to tell me I needed to bring extra bedding. Oh, now she tells me? Just as I lock the door shut? Well, no problem, I also saw an Abbey Hill Medallion Bedsheet and Comforter Collection. This would be a quick buy, I have a brand loyalty to everything Abbey HIll. The online sale ends November 26, so I bought my stuff on a huge discount

My heels spun and clacked throughout the empty house. My kids, strapped in the car waiting for mommy. My sweet husband, anxiously waiting. And I opened the car door, got in and said I was ready.

“What’s that silly grin on your face?” my husband asked.

Oh. Nothing. Clutching my Laptop. Excited to go to our mini-vacation. My husband looked at me one more time and raised one eyebrow.

“What?” he said intently.

In the last 10 minutes of you waiting here in the car, I shopped and got great deals all under $100.00 all under 10 minutes.

“You got jewelry, didn’t you? What did you get for me and the kids?” He said.

I smiled. He knows me better now after 7 years. I mentioned that come December Kmart will have 10% discount deals on everything for him and the kids: I need new tops for my Cassie girl, new sleepwear for my Big Boy Bubba, a set of infant bedding for Baby Cinta, for my husband, he needs new shirts and bottoms, he’ll get that. The car sped to a stop light. Were on our way to vacation. I made a mental list of my ASAP online shopping. Then I eased my weight on the side of the car door. Felt the cool window touch my cheeks, imagined my new “finds” and drifted to sleep.

6 Ways to Cook [Your Name Here] Turkey

1. Conservative Turkey–Traditionally Baked with Stuffing

You would need:

Honeysuckle White Brand Turkey (if you shop midnight before Thanksgiving you can get it for .50 cents a pound)

Butter, Salt and Chicken Breading. Remember to tie the Turkey legs together before baking. Modesty is next to godliness. Or was it cleanliness? I’m no dictionary I can’t keep track of every subtle nuances (yeah yeah: redundant, I know) of this foreign language.

2. Liberal Turkey–Deep Fried Turkey

Ingredients: Giblets (the rest of the Turkey got divided out “Under The Spread the Wealth Act 235″ to the local homeless) Peanut Oil, Season with Cajun while snapping your finger and singing to 50 Cent’s “Get Up”. I was going to embed his video in here but I could not understand a word he’s sayin, ya kna wha I meanin, jus git on the dunce flu en muv it.

It gives me a headache trying to understand it all.

3. The Immigrant Turkey–General Tso’s Special Gobble with a side of Fwayd Rwhys

Turkey required: Narragansett. I tried saying it 3 times and felt a little lightheaded. This turkey is specially designed for all 1st, 2nd to the 5th generation children of immigrants. We are totally into the American culture but you don’t take away our Adobo, Dried Fish or Shrimp Fry or you haven’t seen every Asian persons talent: Ninja, taekwondo, Karate. Mind you, we grew up watching Jackie Chan. That’s the official training manual.

I just realized that assimilation of immigrants can take into many different forms. Take this recipe for example, imagine cooking that roasted Peking Duck. Is your mouth watering yet? Nw, replace the steaming hot and shiny reddish ducky with a humongous Turkey, with beard and all.

It is so Amerasian! (Saying FilAm is so yesterday!)

When your husband’s family passes mushy potatoes in front of you, head for your purse, get your Tupperware full of white rice. Yes, I’ll take rice please. That’s what you call assimilation.

4. The Hannah Montana Turkey–What’s up with the Hannah Montana stuff plague-ing my grocery environment?

Brunette at day and Blond at night. Talk about a case of misplaced identity. Just like the Bronze breed of Turkeys. There was talk that this breed would be commercially used by manufacturing company as to the broadness of its breast. It’s Turkey Breast, you goofball, this is a Rating G blog! Although a strong contender in the market sales, White Turkey still holds the polls.

5. The Man Turkey aka The Hunter’s Turkey–”I’d rather have deer”

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He’s a man, saying “I’d rather have deer” used up his 8 word quota for the day. The other four was a reply to the question who was the last one on the toilet: “T’was, Gen. George Custer!”

Or Jose Rizal for most of you us.

6. The Stay at Home Turkey–The Turkey close to my heart.

How many ways can I make a joke about a Turkey. Enough already, I have suffered that Turkey’s name in vain. All I know is I love eating a juicy slice of Turkey swimming in a bowlful thick gravy.

Working Turkey is not allowed on this Holiday.

Did you know that Thanksgiving is not only celebrated in the United States? There are other nations that celebrate a day where they give thanks. Here they are:

1. Ancient Greece celebrated the Greek goddess Demeter (the CEO of grains) and called their celebration Thesmosphoria. And since it’s a Grecieana instead of a Grecieano, the festivities were naturally participated with women in the village. Their merrymaking were joyfully expressed by a parade of women around town, tents of leaves with lounging women in it gathered like a local fair and an offerings of the biggest and best harvest line up every street corner and of course setting fire to the town bonfire to welcome the fattest pig. I can imagine the horror of that unfortunate pig… The women hoped that the offering would yield better crop production next season and the occasional child birth would not hurt either.
2. Ancient Egyptians have Min, the god of all plants and fertility. Instead of Fall like in the US, Egyptians celebrate their harvest in the springtime. During their harvest farmers feared that the spirits that live inside the corn would get angered by the act of cutting and harvesting the crop. Farmers then believed that if they cry and wail, the spirits would feel bad for them and give them a good crop and ward off crop disease. On the Celebration of Min, the Pharoah would lead a procession along with music, feast and play.
3. The Romans. If there was a Greek celebrations, the Romans would have their version. Their festival may have been easily called Cereal Day or Cerelia as Romans called it, in celebration of Ceres the goddess of Corn. Just like the Egyptians, sports was a big event during harvest season. (Just think, why in our modern world, when we celebrate Thanksgiving does Detroit and GreenBay traditionally play football. Why during San Isidro Labrador, there is always a parade, a feast and sports usually opened by Palacebo? Palacebo is the competition were kids would grab the bag placed atop a heavily greased pole usually a bamboo.)
4. Moon Cakes lined the table of every home in China on Chung Chu’i, the Chinese Thanksgiving. The Chinese thought that the moon has a birthday on August 15 or the 15th day of the 8 month of the year. (Who says that anymore? I’d be weirded out if I asked a friend when her birthday was and she’d reply, “Oh, every 13th day of the 5th month of the year which started on…”) The Chinese believed that the moon sheds flowers on its birthday and whoever sees it would be greatly blessed. Legend has it that when China was under enemy occupation, women would stick messages in the moon cakes to send a secret message about the attack to the invaders.
5. For 3000 years, Jewish families still commemorate the time Moses reached the Promise Land. They also have a Thanksgiving day called, Sukkoth. Sukkoth is celebrated for 8 days where every family would gahter branches and leaves. They would build a temporary shelter out of the branches, cover them with leaves and hang fruits in and around the tent. There are two other names for this celebration: Hag ha Succot–Feast of the Tabernacles and Hag ha Asif–Feast of the Ingathering.
6. Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. English explorer Martin Frobisher discovered Newfoundland and started the first offical Thanksgiving.
7. The US celebrates Thanksgiving much similar to our neighboring country with Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Pie, potatoes and Gravy and Roasted Turkey (don’t forget the stuffing, yum!). The first Thanksgiving day is in Saint Augustine, Florida (modern name) on 8 of September, 1565.

One common thing happens on Thanksgiving, gathering and eating–well that’s two. For this coming Thanksgiving day, may we always remember the many blessings we received through out the year and thank God for all of them.

1. Cook Turkey three times before Thanksgiving and two times after. You’re a certified Tryptophan-holic.
2. Turkey Tail is the premium real estate on the bird.
3. You have a whole set of costume jewelry just for the one hour meal of eating The Turkey.
4. You have a 20 year-old Thanksgiving vest that comes back to life every year like the Resurrection of the Mummy.
5. Your vest camouflages you behind the sea of matching colored table cloth, napkins and plastic ware all set on your table before midnight of Thanksgiving eve.
6. You have to serve Cranberry sauce no matter how many people signed a petition against it.
7. You practice saying Tryptophan the night before The Turkey Day. Just in case people want to know why they are so sleepy.
8. It’s the end of the world if Green Bay Packers didn’t play Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Go GreenBay!

She looks in the mirror intently. Her hands reach the face of her reflection. She smiles and waves hello. She is confused why the face she’s looking at smiles back.

Before any of you think that I have gone and lost my mind altogether, it won’t take a whole lot to push me into insanity I tell ya, the girl who is looking at herself in the mirror is my 19 week old baby: Cinta. She just loves to look in the mirror and talk to herself. Talk about early mirror theraphy. She has become active and playful in the last few weeks. Everything that makes noise, she notices. She shrieks when my tea kettle whistles to a boil. She giggles when her older brother and sister run around the house. She smiles at the sight of daddy. She listens intently during bedtime stories. She is a precious child.

Before she was born, the blogging bug bit me. No wonder, she likes to be infront of the computer for a long time. Wait until she’s a little older and she’ll take over this little crevice of a blog, answering your comments, researching articles, posting and social networking. She’ll be a pro at blogging even before I totally learn how to maneuver my way around here. She’ll be installing a Wordpress theme and tweaking it, even before I could figure out my password without the help of a cheat sheet. It’s a funny image to see my baby on a highchair, sitting infront of the PC, and typing until wee hours of the night. And what will happen to me? I will be the constant server, handing Sky Flake Crackers, Marie, a bottle of milk and the attending to the occasional poop change.

“Mom, please hand me the flash drive, I’d like to back my files up”

“Yaiks!” I will complain in my thoughts, I wouldn’t want my boss to hear me. Else she’ll cut ma pay.

And where would my princess shop for her latest nursery room makeover? Online of course, she’d have too much on her plate to be primping up and get dressed to go somewhere. She’ll browse through every rack and stall ShopWiki Nursery Furniture has to offer. She’ll hand me the bill at the end of the month. I will hesitantly open it only to be pleasantly surprised that she she’s a good shopper, she pimped her nursery with brand-new furniture and it did not go over the budget.

That’s my baby!

I have been video editing a Missionary Video for the last few weeks and would like to share with you the introduction to the video. It tickles me to see my son pose for the camera with different walking positions. He asked me what the video was for, I said for the missionaries that go way over on the other side of the world to tell people about Jesus.

He said, “Does Santa live with them too?”

“Why did you say that?” I asked.

“Because if the missionaries live with Santa, they can tell him about Jesus and tell him what I want for gift too.” He said.

Along with my son’s Thomas the Train sets, he loves to play with his alien doll. He just spends hours upon end with his toys. With Christmas coming to town, I have been window-shopping for my son’s toy gifts. Last Saturday when we went grocery shopping, he thought the store became one big playground. Toys brimming everywhere. The constant begging, pleasding–yes this is not a typo and pushing (literally) almost drove me bonkers. Mental note: shopping for toys equals no kids in tow. As much as I love to see the growing awareness of my children on giving and especially on receiving, I also love to browse for ideas and latest toys. As much I love the look on their faces when they tear in the wrapper (which I carefully and delicately cut and pasted together like I was on a scientific mission), I also want to be frugally wise (redundant?) about buying quality cheap gifts. My son has constantly talked about a gadget gift for the last decade (and he’s not even a decade old yet). Ah to be young again. I wish I were young too. I just can’t explain why a toy is such a huge deal for kids. It is an indescribable experience when you open a wonder.

Talking about feeling and looking young, I was thinking of buying a treadmill for walking in between blogging. But we have a small home, our space to person ratio is all used up. Adding a treadmill would mean throwing away my couch, or my TV or worse yet my computer. Another mental note: Uhm no thanks to the treadmill. I am on the scout for a new exercise regimen that would lower my blood pressure and I would find enjoyable. Rumor has it that Nintendo wii came out with wii fit. Now that’s my kind of exercise. I am serious about looking into this. After six was not a success. A hundred Jumping Jacks a day was too exhausting, it did help that I had a chocolate bar in one hand. Push-ups? I could barely get off the floor even by centimeters. When I thought there was no hope for me, I found wii. I also found wii wheel. Something for my arms to exercise on.

When I looked online, I saw there’s a wii for everyone.

Here’s the proverbial question: What kind of wii are you?

There are a thousand items in my Christmas list. There are tons of un-ticked boxes in my to do list before the holidays. But one thing remains constant in my life and that is God. He inspires me, motivates me and encourages me. He is the one gift I want for Christmas. The gift of His presence and His Love. How could I ask for anything else but His best? How could I say I need when I have everything I need in Him. I am constantly reminded that there are a million blessings that He gave throughout the year. How could I ask for one material thing when He supplied my every need, answered my every prayer, loved me in spite of me. How wonderful a God who is gracious.

This Thanksgiving and Christmastime, I ask for nothing else but the Beautiful, Marvelous Wonderful God in our hearts that warm out home.

For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Romans 11:29

What do I buy for my husband this Christmas? I have been wracking my brain as to what gift that he exactly he needs and what he would use that is worth the money. This is always a constant dilemma come every holiday for me. I have search high and low throughout stores and wide and far online just to make his Christmas day special. Then one day, he was the one who gave me the idea that he wanted music for Christmas. I said “Music equals ipod” Ipod? I mean, yeah I do see them on ads but was never really interested in them because I have my trusty transistor radio. Here’s one ancient artifact for you. What is hip and phat nowadays is an Ipod. It’s the modern day Walkman, only you can store hundreds of thousands of songs and do a lot of other stuff too. So here I am with a gift idea and wanting an Ipod for my one and only, when another question popped up (well, my mother-in-law asked this when I revealed my gift secret, which included What is an Ipod in the cocktail of questions).
What kind of Ipod do I want: Ipod Classic, Ipod Nano, Ipod Touch, Ipod Shuffle, Iphone Ipod Mini? Questions, questions, questions. I need the answers before Christmas, one way to find out is price check the living daylights of every store. If it were my crazy husband (but uber lovable), shake a dice, do a raffle ticket-esque drawing and buy now. But me, I want to research everything. Plus, I find it exciting to tease him about my secret gift hiding somewhere in the house.

My strategy was to buy it online, fast ship to my porch before my husband comes home, hide it somewhere and have that silly grin at the end of the day. Hooo, secret secret (”I like it! My Precious” with my Gollum voice) My problems solved. But what about me? I want one too. Buying one is ok on the wallet buying two needs some serious discount. Then I found out I can squeeze it in my budget. I just could not believe it. What else can I find online? I can get all my great gadgets and not leave my computer. A serious case of blogging addiction.

What is better than posting my daily journal and rants with the sound of savings and uber tech gear in my ears?

Aling Baby thanks for pushing this mobile lemonade stand my way. I have read a lot about lemonade stands in books growing up. Remember Charlie Brown and the Lemonade stand? Is that really about the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans even as young as 7 to 13, or some bald kid having some issues about his baldness? This feels so American. I never even had Lemonade juice before I moved here in the States. And quite frankly my dear, Calamansi juice ranks higher on my juicing scale. And who said kids in the Philippines don’t have their entreprenurial drive? Our Pinoy kids sold iced-candies in little styrofoam boxes with who-knows-what-or-where they got the ingredients from. Check out the murkiness of the popsicle and make a wild guess.

Today, I don’t see lemonade stands here anymore. First, it’s the Fall season, no one wants to thread in snow, freeze their butts off just to earn 50 cents, that’s two glasses, one from the local psycho and the other cup is sold to the dad that that requires some forcible persuasion by throwing a fit before he shells his last 25 cents.

The next bad news for the Lemonade stock market are bad stalkers. Read: Child Predators. With the news of bad news on the 6 o’clock news, no wants their kids trotting along the sidewalks anymore. It’s just to scary to think of the worst when your kids were only distracted by a squirrel down the road. Who will be brave enough to push their products in these findings in the lemonade market research?

Lastly, there are other ways to earn more money for these kids. One time, I got offered with pledges: my dollar to one mile walk. That doesn’t mean this kid will do all the walking. The kid walks half a mile and let Mom and Dad do the 9 and a half miles while carrying them on their backs. Talk about highway robbery. They can even sell you credit cards under the guise of helping their school. Yup, when it’s time for you to pay up, they’ll be looking at you with their cute doe eyes while you slowly drown in the quicksand of debt. Whatever.

There’s this one kid I know, 15 years old mind you, can build a computer from ground up. Sputters technical terms I could not even pronounce.

I am getting old.

I guess i better exercise. Drink more lemonade–There goes my diabetes! Gossip with other people my age. Shop and splurge. I’ve been around kids too long.

Lalaine

Amor

Noodle’s Factory

Sofie

Take it from here.

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