Tag: christmas

December Dawn

Rhiza1 Comment

I woke up this morning to the sound of the rain. Stuck in a tangle of tiny arms and legs, I breathed in the familiar silence that comes with the beginning of each day—the calm before the storm, moms would say.

It was the morning before Christmas and I wanted to bottle it all up: all the feelings, the morning breath, the warmth that filled the room I shared with my little family.

I remember how I ranted one too many times about this most wonderful time of the year, which wasn’t always my most wonderful time of the year. There’s something melancholy about Christmas that I couldn’t quite point my finger at, and every year I grew a little more jaded and cynical and I just wanted the season over and done with.

Needless to say, I felt a shift in recent years. Suddenly there’s something to look forward to on Christmas. And year after year it has become merrier and brighter and more.. hopeful.

With two little kids running around the house and pulling ornaments off the tree, how can you not love Christmas? It never gets old—David and I would find ourselves looking at each other from across a room full of mess, and our hearts would burst with joy and gratitude to God for redeeming Christmas and making a family out of us.

This song played softly in my head this morning, and I thanked God once again for Christmasses and December dawns. It’s a beautiful Christmas love song that was composed and sung by two of my college friends, Reev (music) and Sheila (female vocals) and I often find myself wishing more people knew it!

It’s the anthem to my Decembers, and it’s on loop my Christmas playlist every year, just like Jose Mari Chan’s Christmas in Our Hearts.

Go ahead, have a listen. And I suggest you hug your loved ones a little tighter and longer as the song plays on. You’re welcome.

Merry Christmas! :)

Lyrics of the song after the jump.

Continue reading “December Dawn” →

The paradox of Christmas

Rhiza1 Comment

I had to wait until after Christmas before blogging about this because I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s party, lest someone else (other than me) lived his/her whole life not knowing this little trivia about Christmas.

Jesus is the reason for the season.

It became known to me the pagan origins of Christmas during Pastor Dave’s preaching last Sunday. Having heard it for the first time (yes, at 30 years old I had been blissfully oblivious), I was challenged to Google it and do some further reading. And just like Pastor Dave warned we would feel if we dared read up on it, I was truly disappointed.

For a moment there it felt like everything I believed about December 25 as a child was ruined. (Just for a moment.) How would I be able to teach Dawn & Rain to sing “happy birthday Jesus” on Christmas day now? That the birthday of Jesus is not exactly December 25 was easier to accept and something I’ve heard of before. But that Christmas day historically involved traditions of ungodliness, lawlessness, and occultism is something I was never used to hearing.

There was a fleeting moment of disbelief, and maybe even doubt. Why have we been celebrating the birth of Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, on this day then? How could it be that this sacred celebration be in the same category as all of these age-old pagan activities?

The disappointment lasted only for a moment, and was quickly followed by an epiphany: What a wise and brilliant God we have! Nothing is an accident to Him.

Jesus Christ was born to redeem mankind, and, in retrospect, He also redeemed Christmas day. What used to be a God-less tradition became a celebration of everything beautiful—love, joy, peace, goodwill, humble beginnings. Come to think of it, that is exactly why Jesus was born in the first place.

Suddenly, it’s nice to know the real story behind December 25. Suddenly, the real meaning of Christmas is even deeper than I grew up believing.

#countdownto2014

Merry Christmas from Our Little Family to Yours

RhizaLeave a comment

How crazy is it to have little ones running/crawling and making a ruckus around the house on Christmas day? I can’t even begin to describe the joy! It’s the kind of joy that makes you soar above the holiday stress, the busy-ness, and the chaos that often come with this most wonderful time of the year.

I realize time and time again that there’s no amount of stress or traffic or dirty dishes that can take away the effect of those smiles, the tiny kisses, the little arms around your neck, and the mumbo jumbo of syllables that come out of a baby’s lips. They’re just.. priceless.

Coming home from our annual Christmas eve party in my Mom’s side of the family, we let the girls open their gifts and play with their new toys a little before tucking them in. The obvious truth is, we’re still constantly in awe that this is our life now. I hugged Dawn & Rain a little tighter and longer last night, knowing that my life was utterly changed the past year by these two tiny lives.

Even the way I look at Christmas has spun into this whole new level of wonder and awe. Being a parent now, it blows my mind whenever I think about how much it took for our Father in heaven to give up His own Son as a ransom for many.

I pray that you too will not stop marveling at the wonder of God’s love this Christmas day, remembering the real reason for the season, and having the kind of amazement that can be seen in the eyes of little children. Christmas is here, and it will fly by in the same manner it came—like a breeze. I pray that we won’t miss out on God’s message to us this Christmas, the big and small moments to be treasured, the lessons to be learned, and the love that’s meant to be shared and given away.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

With love from the four of us,
David & Rhiza, Dawn & Rain

#countdownto2014

Photographs on our Christmas Tree

Rhiza2 Comments

After deliberating if we should buy a new Christmas tree and waiting around for Christmas trees to go on sale (for real!), we finally put up our tree sometime mid-December. We bought a bigger tree replaced the small one I had for years. And because the girls in the house outnumber the only boy (hello, Daddy!), I took the liberty of replacing last year’s red poinsettias with pink ornaments this year.

No complaints from the husband! Promise.

Our little Christmas tree

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Two years ago, I pinned polaroids on my Christmas tree just for trips. Last year, on our first Christmas as a married couple, my husband and I thought we should make it a tradition, putting up photos on the tree like a timeline, representing milestones and beautiful memories of the year that was.

And so, for tradition’s sake, here are the photographs that made it to this year’s Christmas tree. Expectedly, these photos are mostly of the twins.. our year’s greatest milestone.

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Christmas Tree 2013

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And yes, they’re all from the ‘gram. Oh how convenient it is to just print out our best photos from Instagram throughout the year. Thank you, IG.

I can imagine how much fun it will be when the twins are older—they’ll choose the photos themselves for the tree. Ahh. Christmas is making me soooo happy, you know? I think I’ve crossed over.

On Christmas Traditions, Typhoon Victims, and Being Still

Rhiza4 Comments

Exactly a month ago, we put together our little Christmas tree at home, and I think I may have said I was “excited” to post more photos. So much for my excitement. The month has been packed with so many things, and uploading these photographs was the first to be pushed down my list! Anyway, here they are, for traditions’ sake.

It’s our first Christmas as husband and wife, and I love that we get to start our own Christmas traditions. Last year, I had some instax photographs up on my Christmas tree, and this year, we decided to do the same. We picked some of our favorite photographs from the wedding and the honeymoon and printed them out with our Polaroid Pogo. It’s a cute little project, something we hope we can keep on doing for years to come.

On another note, I know it has been a challenge for our country to celebrate Christmas this year when Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City are still under the state of calamity. We don’t have a television at home and, quite honestly, my husband and I have only seen and heard so much. I know we’ll never really have a clear picture of what’s happening out there but our family feels somehow involved. My eldest brother is there since last week; as part of his job, he’s with the ABS-CBN Engineering Crew which covers the relief operations there. It’s our first Christmas Day without him, probably even New Year too. And so we had to let go of certain Christmas traditions this year so my brother can be where he’s needed more.

I look at Ate Imy (my sister-in-law) and Isaac and I imagine how difficult it must be for them to celebrate Christmas without Kuya. But then I think about the thousands of families in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan who lost their loved ones and friends over the flash flood, and how devastating Christmas and New Year must be like for them. As I stare at our Christmas tree here at home, my heart goes out to the victims of Sendong who lost their homes and didn’t get the chance to put up their trees this year. At the time of this writing, the death toll has reached about 1,500. This is even more tragic than Ondoy.

Suddenly, no personal issues or problems are too big.

It’s easy to question the goodness of God at a time like this, but words from the Bible pop up like bright stars in the dark sky: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) God sees everything in a bigger perspective, and as far as His grand scheme of things is concerned, everything happens for a reason and for our own good. His ways are higher, we only have to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10)—and believe that with all our hearts.

For the rest of us who are not in the center of this tragedy and are watching this from a distance, it’s our chance to help and make a difference. I’m not directly connected with any relief efforts for Sendong, but I think the surest way for our donations to reach Cagayan de Oro and Iligan is through Red Cross. We have 2 more days left before 2011 ends, let’s make it count.

Meanwhile I’m Putting Up More Twinkly Lights

Rhiza4 Comments

I like quoting from movies, even if no one gets it. And sometimes I like explaining them too, when no one gets it. :p

In You’ve Got Mail, when Kathleen Kelly’s book shop was starting to lose sales after Fox Books opened within the block, she confidently shrugged off the concerns of her worried employees and simply said, “They’re new, it’s a novelty. It’ll all shake out. Meanwhile, I’m putting up more twinkle lights.”

I love that scene. I love how Kathleen said that line as if putting up those lights was more important than worrying about her business. We all could use some of that attitude, don’t you think? (:

Last week, I woke up from a quick nap to the sight of this beauty *points to the picture*. We were supposed to do this together, but the husband thought he’d surprise me so he went ahead putting the Christmas lights up while I was sleeping. A word to husbands out there: big or small gestures like this are very much appreciated. Never get tired surprising your wives with kindness, rest assured, your act of love will be returned tenfolds. ♥

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Here’s some linkworthy stuff to start the week:

+ Interesting thoughts on making disciples by Laura Hamilton. I agree with her, Christianity does involve a bold, unashamed declaration of faith, rather than a quiet commitment you keep to yourself.

+ I cried like a loser, watching this Coca-Cola OFW Project. Good job, Coca-Cola! You make me want to buy boxes of Coke and give them away for Christmas.

+ Alie Edward’s December Daily hybrid journal project makes me wish I have time and skills to do one of my own. Paislee Press and Paper Relics are doing it too. I started scrapbooking (again) lately, I just don’t think I can do it with the same passion and commitment as these ladies here. At least not yet. Maybe someday. (;

+ Pentatonix won the Sing Off last week. I love this video I found in Youtube, a montage of all their performances this season. We still watch them at home until now.

+ I love how Seth Godin’s blogs transcend both business and life. He may be using marketing terms like “products” and “customers” and “services” or may be directly referring to entrepreneurial principles in his posts, but for all we know, he’s actually imparting to us important life lessons on achieving real-life breakthrough one step at a time. Oh, and he’s got some interesting thoughts about Christmas lights, too! This guy thinks about everything! LOL.

+ I’ve been thinking about this SEO and Online Marketing industry I happened to have been exposed to for the past 6-7 years, and I thought, even though I don’t really see myself doing this forever, perhaps I shouldn’t give up on it just yet.

+ Lastly, you might want to help Wikipedia, since, you know, we’ve all somehow benefited from it at one point or another.

Here’s to starting, and ending, the week right! (: