christmas presents

today, my mom went back to the philippines. she's been with us here in singapore since december '07 to help my then new maid to adjust with my 3 kids. unfortunately for my mom, it took the maid about one year to get used to my kids and to the life here.

my mom was really looking forward to going home because as she puts it, she hasn't celebrated christmas in the philippines for about 3-4 years. she has been flying back and forth between home and singapore for the last 6-7 years. and most of the time, she'll be here for christmas which always saddened her, of course.

if you haven't heard of it yet, we filipinos celebrate christmas in the grandest ways. we are known to celebrate christmas the longest. it starts on the first day of september (the beginning of the -ber months) up to the 6th of january (feast of christ the king). it's like thanksgiving for the americans, deepavali for the indians, chinese new year for the chinese, and national day for singaporeans :) i do miss the philippine christmas as well. it's been 8 years since my last christmas there. hopefully, next year, we'd go home for christmas. well, actually, every year, i would say the same thing for the following year. but this time, it's different. we might really go home next year because there is something we need to do there. it's a secret. shhh!

there's something else that we pinoys (filipinos) are also known for. the pasalubongs! there are about blah-blah million pinoys working overseas. and every time a pinoy is going home, we always have to bring home presents to our family, relatives, friends, neighbors, etc. etc. etc. in short, everyone! and this is the very same reason i haven't celebrated christmas back home in a long time. it is always worse during christmas time.



anyway, since there is a global financial crisis right now, i can't really send any presents to everyone back home. so, i just made a few bracelet and handphone straps for some cousins and aunts. i hope they like it even if it's really inexpensive :)



i'm sure right now, everyone is hoping and praying that things will get better next year.


difficulty level of all these stuff: 1 except for the blue bracelet. the blue bracelet would be a three because of the right angle weave (based on 1 to 5, with 5 as the highest level of difficulty, meaning very very difficult)

^_^