And the Bad Blogger Award.....

goes to me obviously! Sigh! Can you believe it's been yet ANOTHER 17 days since I last blogged?!?!?! All sorts of excuses on this one, take your pick from a variety of reasons:

1. shopping and packing before Japa and the kids left the States on Jan. 5
2. spinal injection --- my second ever --- on Jan. 12
3. shopping and packing before we left on Jan. 21
4. I was busy with Ranger (definitely a full-time job!)
5. eating out, shopping
6. resting my back to "save" for when we go on that long plane ride
7. back home to Manila on Jan. 21
8. catching up on CT requirements

See? Told you I had soooooo many reasons for not blogging! :)

{NEW BLOG-LOOK}

You like? Hehehe. I used the wonderful Rina Kroes' Valentine kits on my header up there. Took me quite some time to do the header too, since it seemed forever I made one. *roll eyes here*

Yet another reason to not blog eh? I also tried to see if I could move on to the new blogger, but I wasted so much precious time trying to figure out how to put the dang IMAGE onto the header! I gave up and reverted to the OLD template!

{BACKTRACKING...}

Anyhoo, let me see if I can backtrack a little bit, just so I have a record of what we did during the holidays:

(December 21)
After our trip to Legoland, my leg was definitely FEELING it....I remember we pretty much rested in the morning and it was off to the local shops in the afternoon. Pretty relaxing, and this was the day we bought the kids their HEELYS --- those shoes with a replaceable wheel by the heel of the shoe, hence the name heelys.

I don't know when they all HAD to have this shoe, but they were all longing and salivating for it. We found heelys on sale at the Sports Authority for $50 a pop *gasp, roll eyes, clutch my throat for lack of oxygen* Yes, dear readers, $50 = P2,500 for a pair of glorified sneakers with pop-pable wheels, hehehe.

But to see the pics and the joy on their faces as they skated with the wind in their hair.....priceless :)

(December 22)
First, Happy happy Birthday to my dear cousin Annabelle! See, I didn't forget! And if you know me, I rarely forget birthdays :)

In the morning, as Japa took the older kids for a swim in the super duper FREEZING pool at the resort, I bundled Ranger and took him to the nearby Toys R Us to get him an awesome Thomas the Train set we saw on sale for $70.

When I spotted it, Ranger insisted on having this gigantic box set ON HIS LAP while seated on his stroller. He even held the handle of this huge box! He held it all by himself as we rolled to the cashier. Sheesh! Talk about obsession, man! He didn't want to let go of the box and almost threw a tantrum when I pried it from his hands to put in on the cashier's table!

In the evening, we went to the Quail Botanical Gardens for the Garden of Lights. There were carolers in full Christmas regalia, there were lights all over the gardens, there was even a hayride (which we didn't go on, since we didn't want to spring $3 for EACH of us, including the kids!) Hehehe. The best part of the evening was when the kids roasted marshmallows over a roaring bonfire. It sure brought back memories of when WE did this when we went to Baguio oh so many years ago! :)

(December 23)
It was time to say goodbye to Carlsbad and go back to LA. We took our sweet time during the drive as my leg was acting up again. I used that as an excuse to stop at a target (Tustin, I think, just past Irvine) and do some last minute shopping. Tita Nonie had given the kids some cash to get Christmas gifts they really wanted.

(December 24)
Christmas Eve day.....but definitely nothing like what we have in the Philippines. I spent most of the day doing some last minute wrapping and labeling, if you can believe that. Sigh! I swear, a woman's job is NEVER done, especially during the holidays! It was a good thing I was able to excuse myself from being in the kitchen (as if I had every intention of BEING there, hehehe) and I had a lot of time to finish off my Christmas list.

We had decided, as a family, to NOT attend the Christmas Vigil. We all wanted to be here at HOME when the clock struck midnight for Christmas. We wanted to attend Mass, as was our tradition, but we couldn't find a vigil mass at 9 pm or 10 pm. All the masses were literally MIDNIGHT masses!

At midnight, we all started shouting and greeting everyone a very Merry Christmas. Boydee, the designated Gift Master this year, was assigned to roll call the kids to get some of their gifts. It was a M-A-D-H-O-U-S-E in Polaris. Wrapping paper in the air, shouts of "thank yous" rang out, laughter......all sorts of happy sounds that were just perfect for this special occasion.

(December 25)
Merry Christmas, and a Blessed Birthday to Jesus!

We all went to Mass together at the Holy Redeemer, at 10 am. It was fun to get all dressed up. I had brought long sleeve polos for the boys, paired with their Easter vests (hehehe), but they looked oh-so-handsome in their little outfits. The girls donned the dresses they wore for the wedding of Boydee and Bang two years ago (!!!). I had Nora fix up the dresses in a major way, so that they could fit the girls, who had definitely grown so much bigger and taller in the past couple of years. They looked fabulous, though, and got a few compliments in church about how pretty they looked in their beautiful gowns.

We had our pictorial session out in the garden in Polaris after Mass; the boys were all hungry....but they had us camera-crazed and scrapbook-obsessed women to deal with, hahahahaha! The result, a LOT of pretty good picts to scrap with for sure!

(Santa's Gifts)
When we arrived from Mass, the kids rushed in to find that Santa had been to visit whilst we were at church! Raegan and Rogan were shouting with joy as they tore open the wrapper on their Game Boy Advance, which came complete with a little bag for each of them and a game cartridge. Ranger opened his Leap Frog ABCs and left it on the floor to play with his new Thomas and friends die cast metal toys.

The BEST expression came from Raine, as she ripped into her wrappers. The paper was barely off the box when her face lit up and she did a little silent scream before erupting into screams of delight as she saw a Bratz Diamondz laptop in her hands. :)

Thank goodness Japa was on hand as well to take some pics with his brand new Sony DLSR :)

(December 27)
Robyn's baptism by Father Suki himself, Father Leo (who had baptized Reese and Raegan, too). We had a wonderful dinner afterwards at Macaroni Grill.....yum!

(December 28)
The exodus to Las Vegas began. Hehehe. The Las Vegas trip had some drama with it, too, hehehe. The majority of us didn't want to go to Las Vegas to spend the New Year. We felt it was too commercial, too crowded, too un-family like. Only Mom and Rondic and Boydee I think WANTED to go to this hell-hole to celebrate the New Year.

Mom was in tears, saying that she had looked forward to going to Vegas and questioning why NO ONE said anything beforehand of not wanting to go...and that was all it took for all the boys to melt. Hehehe. I mean, really, what else can you say if your mother REALLY wanted to go, eh? Nothing to do but shrug and just do it! :) Which is what we ddid, hoping to high heavens that this New Year woule be NOTHING compared to the freakin' FIASCO that ws our Millenium New Year at Fort Bonifacio!

We stayed at several places in Vegasl we had to, as it was very difficult to get rooms together for 30+ people! We had people staying at the Mandalay Bay, the Hilton Vacation Club, and Rhodes Ranch, where Bang's family had a house.

(December 31)
New Year's Eve. We all congregated at the Mandalay Bay early in the afternoon. We had heard that the Strip was going to be closed to all traffic and none of us dared test that threat, hehehe. I gladly stayed in the room because I finally had INTERNET ACCESS!!!! Yeah!!!

We all had dinner at the Bayside Buffet--where we of course had too much to eat. I didn't gamble at all, though most everyone did. Like I said, I was happy to have my internet!

Everyone was still up as we anticipated the countdown. There were coordinated fireworks by a lot of the major hotels, but nothing terrific, really. But definitely a notch better than our New Year fiasco 7 years ago.

We left Mandalay at almost 2 am....and had to drop by a Walmart (the only thing open) to buy some drinking water. :)

(January 1, 2007!)
Happy New Year!

We woke up late obviously.. and made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Mount Charleston to take the kids to see and touch some SNOW! It was a 40-minute drive and it was SO worth it to see the kids' reactions! That is, except Ranger, who kept muttering "cold, cold, cold". Hehehehe. Of course, there were a lot of pictures taken by trigger-happy Mama and Papa. Okay fine. More of Mama, who was determined to get some great pictures for scrapping purposes. :)

Another last-minute decision was made to drive home to Los Angeles that same night. I didn't want to join in the mass of people driving home on the 2nd of January. We left at madnight, drove leisurely, made a couple of 15-minute stops. And we were home at 4 am :)

(January 2)
Most of the day was spent doing laundry and packing for the January 5 departure.

(January 3)
Happy Birthday Tita San! Our favorite tita turned the big 5-0!!! We celebrated with dinner at Black Angus and had some great chocolate cake for dessert of course :)

(Janary 5)
Japa and the kids leave for the Philippines, along with Rondic and family. Ranger and I are left to enjoy each other's company and bond...and fight....hehehe. I didn't realize how much I missed Japa when I had to change Ranger's diapers, give him his baths, wash his bottles, feed him :)

(January 12)
Spinal injection time! This round went waaaaaaaay better than the one I had in Manila. I was put under general anaesthesia, had steroids put into 4 or 5 different places in my spine (as opposed to just 1 or 2 in Manila) and I wasn't a screaming banshee in the recovery room at all. In fact, I could walk WITHOUT a cane right after the procedure! Yeah!

I was instructed to NOT DO ANYTHING for that first day following the procedure to allow the holes to close. I lasted less than 24 hours, hehehe. Well, there was Ranger to take care of, there was shopping AND packing to be done.

So many things to do, so little time. I DO know the feeling :)

(January 19)
We had lunch at Light and Healthy....and wonder of wonders! Both Mom AND Dad ate at the sushi bar and HAD sushi!!!! For the first time in history!!!! And wouldn't you know it --- I did NOT have a camera darn it!

............and with that, I have UPDATED my blog. Yeah!!! Hooray!!! :)

Next on the agenda---layouts, and LOTS of it! I've been catching up ever since I got home and have been resting my back and leg. So stay tuned!

TTFN! Whew! What a super duper looooooooong post, eh? At least I'm updated! :)