Hello Friends! It’s the day after Christmas and I hope you had a great time with family and friends or even alone. We had a wonderful time with family at home (white Christmas for us as it snowed Christmas morning!). Lots of yummy food, opening gifts and family time celebrating Jesus birthday! Happy Birthday Jesus and thank you for coming and saving us:)
Merry Christmas from our family!
Christmas eve we had Chinese food and played the scoop money game we’ve seen online. I’m still laughing thinking of that game, Hubs was a mess playing that game. I cannot remember how many times I’ve watched the video of him playing.
preparing for the game
Santa (Hubs) got things ready for Christmas morning
Christmas morning!
Christmas snacks
Roast pork belly
my dinner plate! Crabs, roast pork, roast brussels sprouts
Auntie and Uncle visiting to spend Christmas afternoon with us
Dessert prepared by Aunt Candy!The bread pudding is to die for:)
It’s officially Christmas Break for Hubs and Mia here, we’ve been doing all the coziness that we wanted to do. Lots of holiday movies, popcorn and hot cocoa, eating cookies and treats! The kids wanted to go biking/scooter when it’s not raining, and they were able to once or twice. We are forecasted to have some snow Christmas day! Mia is loving the Little House books series by Laura Ingells Wilder. We read every day and watched some episodes already.
Christmas is almost here! We are ready to celebrate Jesus birthday!#lessstress
Stay safe friends!
my current read
tree still looks amazing!not dry at all
We did some shopping at the Filipino store and got some Jollibee (filipino version of Mcdonalds). Kids love their spaghetti.
Hi Friends! How’s it going? It was a quiet weekend on our part. Mostly stayed home (because it rained a lot!) and Hubs bakes some bread and I cooked most of the time:) We did drive around our neighborhood and watched Christmas lights then visited Mia’s school because they had Christmas lights/decorations and live performances of the nativity! We stopped by at my In law’s house after because the kids wanted to see their Christmas decors:) With Christmas just around the corner, I’m really trying to be intentional with our time and focus on things that matters (Jesus, family, home).
One of our neighbors decors!
Nativity at Mia’s school!
Take out night!
Finally hung our stockings!
Hubs made us savory crepes! Gruyere cheese and ham:) YUM
I cooked Beef mechado (filipino dish) and Pancit! Lots of leftovers for this weeks lunches.
Sister prepared creme brulee for us!
Hubs baked Pandesal (filipino rolls)
We watched lots of movies this weekend too! (Rich Crazy Asian, Lord of the rings, Hallmark movies). Sis made us yummy drinks to go with our popcorn!HA
Hi friends! Happy Wednesday:) This past weekend, we finally put up our fresh Christmas tree. Hubs and I thought that this year it would be nice to have a real one (I think it was 5 years ago we had a fresh one). Too much work though with kids !HA we had meltdowns when Hubs cut the tree at the the farm. We visited 2 Christmas tree farms before we finally found ours. We really like how open this one is, making it easier to see the ornaments. Thank You Hubs for doing most of the work, from cutting the tree to putting all the lights and ornaments!
12 ft Noble tree
view from our dining table!We are having HOT Pot here:)
Hello Friends! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year with your family and friends! Despite the craziness this year, lots of reasons to be grateful for and appreciate God’s blessings everyday. Our thanksgiving this year is extra special because my sisters and BIL were able to join us!
Aside from the traditional thanksgiving food that we normally prepare, my sisters and I cooked filipino dishes too like roast pork belly (lechon belly) and Lumpia (spring rolls)! They were a hit:)
Hubs and BILs birthdays were right on and the day after thanksgiving! Happy Birthday guys:) Special times!
Sis and Hub prepared our charcuterie board! Another crowd favorite:)
Roast Pork Belly!
Hubs baked rolls and it was so good!
Hubs plate!
Dessert by Hubs: vanilla creme brulee
Watching Wheel of Time after dinner!
Have a great Sunday night friends! Happy Thanksgiving (belated). Stay safe:)
Hi friends! It’s been a dreary, rainy, dark week here on our side of the world. Fall is here! Not a lot going on here after a busy weekend of trick or treating and spending time with family/friends! Mia is having lots of fun at school too:) she just had her pumpkin carving party with daddy. Here at home we are just doing the usual homemaking work and I continuing to declutter with our stuff, especially the kids. Bye bye baby clothes:( They’re growing up so fast.
First Daddy and Me school party!
Trick or Treating with friends!
Chic-fil-a after the busy afternoon!
Another trick or treating with our neighbors in our neighborhood!
We invited our In laws too! We had pizza and jalapeno poppers! YUM
With the cold weather, I made this Beef soup (Beef Nilaga) because this is just perfect for the weather. The kids really like this soup. One of their fave filipino foods.
Daddy baked pretzels this week too. No decent pic to share!HA It was good though.
My busy little girl! She’s been napping lately after school. So precious:)
I hope you’re having a great evening friends! Take care 🙂
Hubs and I have been cooking this month at home. Nothing fancy, but just dishes that we liked and something that we can do together aside from watching K-dramas! HA. He finally tried making donuts from scratch and thank goodness it was YUMMY. It’s discouraging when you cook something and the recipe is a big fail.
Chicken wings. We normally get wings from Costco and lately we are not happy with the quality! So tiny!
Oxtail with peanut sauce! I added crispy pork belly
Beef *chuck in spicy tomato sauce
chicken and mushroom pasta
One of my fall favorites! Short ribs in red wine. So Decadent!
The kids fave fish! Grilled to perfection – Pompano.
Pompano fish and mackerel
Gruyere chive Popovers! We always have this Christmas morning, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat them year round!
Crispy beef orange (we added shrimp too)
simple chili nachos (but I used potatoes)
grilled pork belly
Nachos
Beef tenderloin with garlic,butter,soysauce,pepper and a little oyster sauce! Kids fave:)
We grilled fish again and invited my In laws!
no decent pics of Hubs donuts!
Hubs got me some blue crabs! He’s not a big fan of these tiny crabs! HA
Crabs and shrimps in coconut milk with beans and squash
We don’t cook every night! We do eat leftovers a lot and the usual takeout/drive through/frozen store brought meals to give us a break. Looking forward to next months cooking adventures!
Thank God It’s Friday! I had such a long day yesterday, so today I’m going to take things slow. I had my dental appointment, picking up Mia at school, did a grocery trip, plus the usual things of cooking and taking care of the kids! All good stuff:)
I got to my dentist 10 minutes early so I had time to enjoy the beautiful fall leaves around the neighborhood. I love this time of year, so pretty! Growing up in the Philippines, we don’t really have seasons, so I really do appreciate experiencing all 4 seasons here in the US!
Picking up Mia here, she loves saying bye to her friends!
Every Thursday after school, it’s a tradition for us to get her a little treat and she almost always picks a Happy meal or Starbucks cake pop! Yesterday, she picked a cake pop. I needed to get some groceries so we stopped at our local grocery store where we have a Starbucks inside the store. I still noticed some empty shelves (although not as bad to other parts of the country). I’m still stocking up and adding to our pantry.
Treated myself with grocery sushi, it’s not so bad! I’m always careful with sushi at the grocery stores but so far I’ve had it twice and I didn’t get sick!HA
I got pink roses too! I had a long day so I figured roses would make it more lovely:)
I decided to try Misfit market and my order finally arrived yesterday. I’m not sure if this is all worth it(price wise), but we are happy with the veggies and fruits so far (aside from the celery that looks so tired!HA). Kids devoured the grapes last night (so juicy).
I dehydrated cherry tomatoes and made chicken stock this week.
I grilled pork belly and roast broccoli for dinner last night. Kids and I enjoyed it, Hubs had a long night from work/meeting. He had something else!
Enjoying my coffee this morning with this view from our dining table. So pretty!
We visited a Pumpkin Patch today (20 mins drive from our house – Jubilee farm), organized by Mia’s school! We had fun together with her little friends and their families. Mia picked a pumpkin that she will carve with Daddy in the coming days. She said this is the best day ever because I liked my popcorn!HA. We enjoyed donuts, apple cider and kettle corn after we picked our pumpkin. Matthew got scared during the hay ride!HA I don’t think he liked the sound of the tractor. Love fall weekends like this!
With all the news about supply chain disruptions and price increases, I did prep a little with the meat and fish we got (my DIL got it from Costco earlier this week). It’s all ready for future meals. I plan to dehydrate tomatoes, bell peppers,onions this weekend. I love getting my pantry and freezer ready!
I have to sharpen my knives prior to cutting my pork belly and salmon! So dangerous to have dull knives when cutting meat.
I added crispy pork belly in my karekare leftovers! This was so good:)
Mia visited her grandparents last week and she got to play with the leaves in their neighborhood! Loving the fall season.
This past weekend, we got to hangout with our friends and played Dominion! I won!;) It’s always fun to see and catch up with dear friends.
Mia got to bake her rainbow birthday cake with the Hubs last Sunday! It turned out great. We ordered from our local Thai restaurant for our dinner. She loved all her gifts from our family.
the kitchen was a disaster but she had fun!
crab fried rice! YUM
Have a great Wednesday night friends! Stay safe and talk later:)
