SSS #13: Back to the Dark Ages

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Two days ago, Keith and I were flabbergasted to discover that our trusty internet satellite connection was unusually slow and that we couldn\’t access our emails and blogs. For people like us who have learned to rely on the web as a very important means of communicating with the world outside the kingdom, this was VERY SERIOUS. And with New Year\’s coming up, how do we get in touch with our loved ones back home? Panic time, folks!

What to do? Keith immediately contacted our service provider to report this matter and was advised that this problem was apparently \”kingdom-wide\” and that they could not assure us when it would be fixed (at this point, someone had to give us sedatives to calm our already grated nerves ). Omigosh! THIS COULD NOT BE HAPPENING – but, sadly, it was, and it went on till a couple of minutes ago!

The time that the internet connection was going ga-ga was literally a return to the dark ages for us – before the advent of technology – and it was definitely nerve-wracking! It has thrown us out of our comfort zone (that the internet will always be there to let us know what, where, how and when even across great distances) by forcing us to go back to basics (yup, costly IDD calls!) just to get in touch with the folks back home. It has also made me realize how blessed we are now to have this powerful tool – which most of us consider as a necessity in this time and age – at our fingertips. I simply couldn\’t imagine pre-internet KSA – our family couldn\’t have survived for sure being cut-off from the rest of the world (i.e., those we hold near and dear)!

As the cyberspace dust begins to settle, we found out that it wasn\’t only KSA that experienced this sytem glitch as other places in the world have likewise had this \”dark ages\” episode. They were saying something about how the earthquake in Taiwan has somehow affected worldwide web satellite communications… guess it\’s something like \”when America sneezes, the world catches a cold\” bit. Only shows how the world is becoming smaller and smaller as technology now makes it possible for people to communicate even across the farthest reaches of the earth – truly amazing!

To all email and blog fanatics like me, now that cyberspace has now normalized, I believe a collective \”Thank God for technology! \” is in order. Here\’s to an internet glitch-free year ahead! Amen!

SSS #12: Thrice Blessed

Ever since my wedding day nine years ago, Christmas day and the day following it have always held a threefold blessing – the 25^th being Christmas and incidentally, also my birthday, while the 26^th being our wedding anniversary.

This threefold blessing seemed to hold a deeper significance for me this year as we celebrated our first holiday season away from home. I felt that, more than ever, the Lord has been holding up his end of the bargain – that He would take care of us and prosper us as we ventured out into “the desert”. Why so?

First, He led us to people who have generously shared with us their resources. Since most of the Filipinos in Aramco are also on holiday, Keith and I were a bit skeptical that we would be able to attend Christmas day services there with no one to sponsor us. However, God is truly good as He made it possible for us to find a sponsor and thus attend the Christmas Eve mass. As an added bonus, Keith and I, together with the boys (little Marga was already sound asleep at this time) were even requested to be the “offerors” in the offertory procession. What can I say? God really works in marvelous ways!

Second, He has held us too to our side of the deal – that just as He has blessed us, we too must also be sources of blessings for others. What better way to do this than to also let “Bro Cuz” Rinel, Obet and Vic (Keith’s friends from the office) and Drs Berly and Vic (our doctor friends from SAAD) join us in the mass and also for a simple Noche Buena in our flat afterwards? Despite the innate stress of hosting (am truly my mother’s daughter!), I am happy that I overcame this feeling of “inconvenience” as there is definitely no greater joy than to see others also being touched by the Christmas spirit because you let them into your home on Christmas Eve!

Lastly, I feel that through all this, He has strengthened the bonds of love, understanding, support and patience in our family. Admittedly, being on our own has its “off days” which really put a toll on my patience – like when the boys seem to be especially naughty or when Marga cries incessantly and refuses to be put down on the bed – yet I believe that these difficulties only serve to build character. They also make me realize what a wonderful, supportive husband I am blessed with and that there are people beyond my immediate family who are more than willing to lend a helping hand.

Truly, God has been very good to us and has blessed us more than we could ever hope for. I pray that I remember this not only during the Christmas season but especially during times of inconvenience and difficulty. More importantly, may the Christmas spirit of love and sharing always be in all of us throughout the coming year.

Happy Holidays

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Just wanted to squeeze in this greeting from our family to yours. We pray that amidst the hustle and bustle of the season, all of us can still pause and be thankful that a child was born to us over 2,000 years ago. May the child Jesus\’ simplicity and peace be with us not only during Christmas but for always.

Merry Christmas everyone!

SSS #11: Hot Cocoa Days

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Here in KSA, where all telltale signs of the approaching holidays are virtually absent, probably the only thing (as our fave \”bro cuz\” Rinel correctly put it) to remind us that Christmas is just around the corner is the extra chill in the December air – \”sweater weather\”, as I would best describe it . For us who are used to the temp dipping to the mid-20\’s only during the holiday season, having the temp go down further to the 15-16 degree levels is a welcome change – feeling namin, \”abroad na abroad\” ang dating! Bring out the parkas, jackets, mufflers, gloves and bonnets please!

Thankfully, also, though we admit feeling the pinch of the holiday blues more pointedly during this time, my dear hubby has made every effort to ease the homesickness we feel by making the ambience in our home and around us more \”Christmas-sy\”.

This weekend, for example, he brought the kids to the malls to choose their presents – they had a blast going around Toys \’R Us and City Plaza! He also put up the kids\’ Christmas socks and set-up all the Christmas presents we have around our mini-tree, which, by the way, is also all lighted up (yup, all 10 bulbs are ablaze!). Not content with this, he even went to the extent of lighting our decorative candles and concocting the special cinnamon-scented brew (an idea from Tita Telay Edillon, our LNP friend Kiril\’s aunt, who kindly sponsors our family to get in Aramco to be able to attend the weekend services) – a mixture of half an apple, half an orange and some cinnamon sticks heated on a pan of water for about 15 mins -so that you get that distinct holiday feeling when you enter our home, as if freshly-baked apple pie has just popped out of the oven. I highly recommend this brew to all my \”DD\” (aka domestic diva) friends out there for that instant holiday pick-me-upper! A word of caution: DO NOT DRINK THE BREW – it\’s meant to be a natural home scent only!

Of course, I , too, had to do my share of sustaining the already warm Christmas-sy feel – what better way to do this than with a steaming cup of hot cocoa and some cinnamon rolls? As we obviously have no access to the traditional \”tsokolate -e\” that our lolas used to make and Cinnabon seems a tad too expensive for our purposes, I had to make do with store-bought Cadbury instant hot chocolate (Caffe Latte flavor) and cinnamon rolls from our local grocer. The kids also had the bright idea of topping the hot cocoa with little marshmallow bits – yummy! It\’s amazing how comfort food like these can make us feel so much better!

Needless to say, as we enjoyed ourselves amid the very holiday-like ambience, doing all these also made us momentarily forget that what we have is a very \”localized\” (ie, confined to the four walls of our home) way of spreading Christmas cheer. Nevertheless, it made the upcoming holidays more real and meaningful not only for Keith, Rinel and I, but moreso for Luigi, Rafa and little Marga.

Unlike in my previous post where I felt the bite of the holiday homesickness bug very much, the past weekend has shown me that we could actually bring Christmas into this \”holiday-forsaken\” place and that the presence of loving and caring family more than makes up for the fact that we would be spending this Christmas away from our dear ol\’ Manila.

Am so feeling the Christmas spirit already! Hohoho!

SSS #10 : Blue Christmas

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“Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there was a vast desert, Arabs galore and no Christmas…”

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If we were in a fairy tale, this would have been the perfect intro to describe our situation here in KSA.� I thought Christmas wouldn’t be a big deal and that we could just conveniently ignore it as, apart from the weekly services at Aramco, the homemade Christmas tree we have and the advent wreath I hurriedly purchased yesterday from the Aramco craft sale, there is nothing here to remind us that the yuletide season is upon us and the rest of the Christian world.

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Yet, now, as I listen to Ryan Cayabyab’s soothing voice belting “Payapang Daigdig” (thanks to Leweiss and Noriel for leaving us Mr C’s CD to tide us over this holiday season!), sentimentality gets a strong grip on me and makes me realize that wherever we are, there is just no escaping Christmas.� Suddenly, flashes of Christmas back home come to mind – brightly lit houses, the never-ending Christmas parties (never thought I would miss these!!), Christmas eve masses at Bene and the general feeling of good cheer in the nippy December air.�

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Christmas would be definitely different for us this year as we spend it apart from those we hold near and dear.� The thought that our family would be the only ones absent from the annual Christmas family reunions also doesn’t help one bit (even my fave ses, Rina, is flying out from Malibu today to be with the fam this season)! I only pray Keith and I can somehow make up the lost December cheer and festivities to our two boys, Luigi and Rafa, who at their young ages, are true-blue veterans of how it is to spend a “proper” Christmas.� It’s a bit sad too that our little girl, Marga, would also have to spend her first Christmas in this fashion (promise, baby girl, from this point, there’s no way to go but up!).

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I also pray for the strength to be able to genuinely impart the true meaning of Christmas not only to our children but also to all those who may be lonelier than we are during these times.� That, more than anything, we are celebrating how our God chose to enter this world as a little baby so that He may fully experience the human condition and thus be the perfect instrument to save it from eternal damnation (whew! That was a mouthful – thank God I still remember my theology lessons from ages ago!).

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Although, admittedly, Christmas will be blue for us this year, I am comforted by the fact that just as blue is only one color�in the whole rainbow, Christmas will turn on a brighter hue for us the next time around.

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Merry Christmas everyone, wherever you are!� Keep the faith!

SSS #9: Sugar and Spice

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It was back to Applebee\’s for us to celebrate Marga\’s 6th month birthday (so sorry we couldn\’t resist the yummy food  - the Cajun steak and shrimp dinner and sizzling apple pie a la mode are definitely tops on my list!) last 03 Dec.  It also helps that 90% of all staff in this resto are \”kabayans\” so we get the little extra home-style service which seems like a rarity in this part of the world… This time around, we had Rinel (aka Tito Dimples ) join us so we could at least help ease his tearful nights pining for his family (Gorgeous Ge and Irresistible Ira  -they will, as they say here, inshallah,  join him by Mar 07).

       

Enough said about the resto, now on to the main event – our little princess, Marga . 

Due to insistent public demand (okay, okay, her grandparents, titos and titas wanted more news about her!), allow me to describe what  Marga can now do.

As Keith mentioned in his earlier blogs, gone are the days when Marga would just eat and sleep.  She has since become more active and at times, demanding .  Whoever made the nursery verse saying, \”Sugar and spice and everything nice, that\’s what little girls are made of\”, probably had Marga in mind.  True, she still melts our hearts whenever she innocently smiles, coos or giggles hysterically, BUT… this is just one part of the story – this little spitfire also definitely has fire in her belly when the occasion calls for it!  Looks like, in Marga\’s case, more spice than sugar was added to the mix!

A classic example would be our recent trip to the mall when, probably in a fit of boredom, she decided to growl and raise her voice non-stop evoking stares from passersby (nope, rolling her stroller frantically to shush her didn\’t help!) until her ever-loyal Papa carried her or until I brought out the bottle to feed her – good thing that she didn\’t feel like I had to do \”cow duty\” right there and then as I would\’ve probably been arrested for \”indecent exposure\” – hahaha!   There are also days when she feels she needs to exercise her lungs (if you know what I mean) that I practically rush over to her side time and again and throw whatever housework is scheduled for the day out the window.  Keith jokingly (more like a half-meant joke, if you ask me) tells me that at least I know Marga got something from me… well, can\’t say I disagree as I, too, am a very outspoken person and do also have my moods . 

Don\’t get me wrong, though, I adore my little girl and as I always say, she is truly a \”bonus\” gift that Keith and I will always be grateful to the Lord for.  When she tightly holds my hand as she drifts off to sleep or when she laughs uncontrollably at some silly antic she saw, I feel as though God has shown me pure bliss and a piece of heaven . When she rolls over by herself (this has become quite rare, though, after \”The Fall\” – natakot ata!) or picks up her duckie rattle and shakes it, I am beaming with pride at how much she has grown.

Truly, through all the sugar and spice that makes up this little girl, we got ourselves one heck of an extra-special package.

Our dear Marga, no words can express how much you are loved. 

Happy 6th month, darling girl!