Greetings 2012, I Come in Peace

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's a new calendar year, and for many of us, a new beginning - or at least the chance to start again on something. Let us all make the coming year 365 days' worth of awesomeness and blessings!

Special Mention:

Thank you, my regular readers. If you do not consistently follow and read my blog, there's very little for me to write on and about. Thank you for inspiring me as well. I enter 2012 knowing that this is my sixth year in the bloggosphere! It's been quite a journey, and looking back, I've improved so much. Thank you, and Happy New Year!

Jay~

Pre-Christmas Celebration

PJ and I wanted to start off Christmas a little early, so we had a simple celebration plus gift exchanges. Simplicity always brings out the best in us, and I am so happy we got to spend some nice, alone time with each other, having a couple of drinks over cake :)

Cake!

PJ, the cake, and some wine to go with it :)

With the tiny Christmas tree.

Lights and presents.

Cheers to a happy Christmas :)

Merry Christmas indeed! :)

Jay~

7 Days To Christmas

It's exactly a week before Christmas!

I wasn't always a fan of Christmastime; I went through a phase when it was just 'another holiday celebration'. Of course, I am older and while the fantastical aspect of the season is long past me, I am rediscovering the magic that this celebration creates. At least for me.

For the next seven days then, I challenge you to join me in a journey of self-realization, thankfulness, and love. Here is a list of seven things I will do for the next seven days, perhaps to live during this once-a-year season the way we were meant to. Also, buy yourself something nice; it will come in handy on December 24.

December 18

Forgive, Forget: Food

There will always be that person (or even persons!) we've just really wanted to push towards in-coming traffic. Perhaps they have committed an offense that angered or insulted us, and it could be something petty or it could be something crazy big. The point is, identify that person and in the spirit of Christmas, forgive and forget by giving s/he a nice small item of food. I will personally get cupcakes. And of course, you don't have to explain what it's for ;)

December 19

Unseen Utility

We never notice the people that make our lives so much easier. The janitors at our workplaces, schools, and buildings; the guards that watch over us; the house help who prepare our clothes and food. Take this day and give them something thoughtful, like a Christmas card with a hand-written note in it, or something sweet to munch on during work. From experience, I have found that something so simple and plain like a card goes a LONG way to cementing relationships. My cards list this year was over 40 people!

December 20

Poor and Prejudiced

I'm personally not a fan of passive charity, such as giving money to beggars and street children. I've always believed that this is one of the reasons we cannot bring them out of poverty. Having said that, treats in life are rare but oft appreciated. Find that street kid you see all the time on your commute to work or school, and give him/her a nice slice of Christmas cake or sweet treat. Don't be stingy; that might possibly be a first-time (or at least very rare) experience, and you want the kid to enjoy his/her Christmas present from you :)

December 21

Friends Forever - Part 1

You know your acquaintances; the ones you 'know' but you don't really 'know'. Pick one from your hundreds and thousands of Facebook friends, send a private message (or chat, or tweet, or a text message - heck, even call) and just say "Merry Christmas!" Yes, s/he might be surprised, but I have never met a person who disliked a surprise Christmas greeting. Bonus challenge: Do this to ten (10) friends.

December 22

Friends Forever - Part 2

Every one has that special group of friends where one can just run to and talk anything. These are the people who would die for you, and they know you would do the same. They deserve at the very least a phone call (props for an actual Christmas card) from you wishing them "Merry Christmas!" These are friends for keeps, and forgetting to greet them spells you as a merry douchepacket. Massive hell-no for those ready-made-and-ready-to-send email Christmas greeting. You're cheap if you do that.

December 23

Familiar Family

Not all of us are close to our family members; heck, I cannot say with a straight face that I'm very close with some of my relatives. However, this is one time in the year when we can greet them at least, and when possible, actually visit them even just to say hi. A card is the very minimum in this one. If they appreciate it, all's well and good. If they don't, that's not a problem on your side at all. Blood is something we cannot and will never be able to change. 

December 24

I Love Me

It's Christmas eve! This is when we have dinner with our family, or join special people when family isn't available. Today though, I would like you to open a present you gave yourself (as per the instructions at the beginning of this post). Now thank yourself for being strong when you could have been weak, for being faithful when you could have lied, for being the best you could when no one would care anyway, and for giving your all even when you have pushed so hard already. For over three hundred days, you could have given up at any point and yet here you are. Celebrate life. Celebrate YOU.

December 25

Big Belief

I'm a big critic of labeling faiths. I don't really care if you call yourself a Catholic, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a god (hopefully not a god though; you're not Tom Cruise). Whatever creed you follow, whichever prophet you listen to, take today and give thanks and acknowledge the greater power that must be out there. Especially for those times when you know you shouldn't have been able to, but you overcame. There are those times when things just go the way you want them to, and no credit to you. Yes, those days. Appreciate.

Merry Christmas! I wish you the best of luck in your next seven days!

Jay~

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

You may have all the Christmas loot that you desire and all the food you can eat, but never forget that this magical season is about remembering a human being, just like you and I, who through extraordinary faith, courage, and love, gave up His life for undeserving strangers.

Live love in our hearts :)

Picture from this blog.

Jay~

Skittlez Crew - The Christmas Party

I thought that in our almost four years of existence, the crew needed a proper Christmas party. That means exchanging presents as well, and it turned out to be a big load of fun! I also surprised the crew with some official-looking certificates just to show them that the effort, time, and talent put into the crew was not lost on anyone.

We played two of our most popular private games, the Stop Dance Challenge (where we would dance a routine, but the music could cut off abruptly at any time, thus enabling us to spot who was off-beat, too fast, too slow, etc. You get the idea) and the Araneta Level Challenge (where we'd try to dance a routine in the most exaggerated form possible, assuming that since Araneta Coliseum was pretty big, it would take much more effort for a dance to be seen). HAHAHA!






Winners of the Stop-Dance and Araneta Challenges, respectively :)



Recognizing the behind-the-scenes contributions: music mixing, make-up and costume, as well as transport and logistics.




Our Most Improved Dancers of 2010: Rocky Estallo and Richard Ong. Both were part of our UAAP dance team, as well as our championship-winning Remix team. I'm very proud of these boys.



We conducted a vote a week before this, and it was tallied that the Best Choreography for 2010 was our piece on "Walking on a Dream". It was made by Cheng Ortaleza (our music mixer) and choreography pool members Paulo Buenaventura and Nicole Carlos. We used it for our Remix 2010 championship piece.


There were also more than fifteen members of the choreography pool that received individual certificates, but that's quite a bit to post. Haha.. We capped off the night doing what we do best: we battled each other :D






Skittlez Crew: One Love, CHYEAH! :D







Jay~

Skittlez Pool Party

Some of us in the crew decided to have a pre-Christmas celebration at Karelle's house, and since she had a swimming pool, we decided to have a pool party as well. Our first crew papi, Decky, was also back from California so it was a great chance to have a get-together. Dinner at Karelle's, for lack of a better term, is bountiful. Haha!



And it was pool time! :D









The Skittlez "Qwerty Club" LOL


Wish you were here <3


For virtue of sheer cuteness, Karelle's pet Haley Dy (yes, she has a last name) deserves a picture on this post :D


Love you Skittlez! <3

Jay~

Office of the President and Chancellor - The Christmas Party

We may be one of the busiest and one of the most important offices in De La Salle University Manila, but we also know how celebrate and have a good time. First, we have to make sure that the rest of the campus know that we are.. Well, "busy" :)



So yes, we were busy. Busy stuffing ourselves with awesome Filipino food. We had adobo, kare kare (seriously becoming my favorite Filipino dish), steamed and stuffed fish, and the almighty lechon baboy. Here we go!





We then ate and the Chief of Staff, Sir Roj, and myself created some games for the other staffers. The two big bosses, Brother President Jun and Brother Chancellor Ricky, were really good sports and played the games with as much gusto as anyone.






Finally, we exchanged gifts with each other. It was really fun, since we had code names and didn't know who would be getting our gifts. We were just given a wish list the week before, and we picked one out of the three written. I asked for a bookstore gift certificate, and I received one from Powerbooks (I'm going to be a big customer one of these days, what with all the GCs I've been getting!) from Mdm. Marivic. I drew Mdm. Marife, and I got her a Bagabons shoulder bag.


Very fun and food-packed Christmas party :) I really enjoy working here, and I just have this feeling I'm going to be enjoying my entire stay at the OPC. Merry Christmas!

Jay~