I love Christmas! =)

Last December 2010 was what we consider our first christmas as husband and wife in our own place & pregnant with Saffron. Well not really our first Christmas as husband and wife since we were married December 6, 2009 but the 2009 christmas was not really counted. hehehe! We received a christmas tree gift from our Ninang Marilyn. She said this was a hit in china. It saves space and money cause the tree has built-in lights. 

This was our first tree with my nephew Tristan. 

This year I am so obsessed with christmas decors. Why? Last year, we weren't able to put up any christmas decors, no Parol (christmas lantern) not even a real christmas tree. I was busy baking orders and busy taking care of Saffron. All I have for 2011 was some figurines I got from a flea market in Dagupan Manila. 

my oldest christmas decor which I got from Dapitan market each pair cost 250.00 pesos. I bought this around February of 2010. 

This year I  promised to make an effort to decorate our house. This year is more special since it's Saffron's first christmas that he knows whats going on around him. End of October we were able to buy our 1st parol. We choose this colorful parol for Sam cause his fascinated by changing colors. 

Sam and his baba. Photo taken last Oct 22, 2012. It's our first time to own a Parol (Christmas Lantern). This lantern cost 1,000.00 bought it at Gilmore street. 

I love transforming our house into semi-festive mode, but I'd be honest...I'm more into buying ready made decorations and hoping to somewhat alter it and make it my own.  DIY stuffs??? well I'm not so good at that, so lets leave it to our resident DIY diva mommy Smiley. hehehe!

Our foyer table, decorated with Santa cups

Candy canes are my favorites. =)

Santa Cups i got from Puregold Subic during our recent trip. 

Each santa cups cost 89.00 pesos

Baba, finally found time to hang our Parol outside our veranda.

Another reason to love christmas season...It gives me license to decorate our humble adobe and gives you license to spend for gifts without the guilt. hehehe! I'm also lucky that my husband supports my craziness. He has been brainwashed to be domesticated. hahahaha! 

This is my inspiration for my tree. Photo taken last Dec 2008 at a Hong Kong hotel lobby.

So I asked Jon to get me my tree. He was actually considering of buying a real christmas tree from S & R. When I say real, he was to buy the REAL tree, fresh pine tree. I asked him not to cause there's no need for us to have that kind of tree. He said I thought you wanted the same in Hong kong? Plastic tree is fine for me. =) So, he went to true value again wanting to buy a tree and then I remembered that my mother-in-law has 2 christmas trees that she doesn't like using anymore and is just kept on our commissary attic. So we got the "slim tree" cause the other tree from Designer's bloom was sooooooooooooo huge.  Since I'm only 5'2" I needed the man of the house to put up the tree for me. 

Photo and caption grab form Jon's FB post:

Jon: Work in progress.... Well I must say, even a chef should know how to do house chores and crafts. Hahahaha Hindi Lang ako marunong magplancha. The rest, I can handle. Especially this Christmas tree. Hehe

I asked Jon to buy christmas lights. I wanted warm white christmas lights and he end up buying white lights cause that's what he wants. Marriage is give and take so i let him have the christmas lights na. hahaha! We hang some red and matte gold balls up our tree but the tree looked so sad...so I asked Jon if we can use the old christmas tree ornaments thats was kept in the attic. He said yes... It got me excited. So I worked on our tree for 3 days. 

1st day I just grab some flowers and ferns (i just call it ferns cause it looks like one but I'm not really sure if it was) and put it on our tree but still the tree looks sad and kalbo. 

 flowers and ferns 

I asked our maids to look for more ornaments. They were able to find pears, oranges, twigs, yellow and red grapes (even in our tree there is food! hahaha).

The addition of fruits made it more full but i was not really happy. Cause I think there are still spaces thats needs filling. 

I asked them to look for more. When Jon found out that I asked for all the ornaments he said...you'll use everything? our tree is so slim how can all of those fit in there? All i said was... I will find a way. =) 

I added some red twigs and some mapple tree leaf. 

after 3 days of fixing and re-arranging...That moi fixing and obsessing about my tree. =) I also have to find time in between motherhood and baking to wrap gifts & write gift cards...I just hope i can still finish everything...  =)

Here is our final tree! 

not so kalbo... I just love it... I know I might raise some eye brows...but all i can say is This is my/our tree go get yours. hehehe! =)

Oh...and I still need to buy a nice and cute belen for our house. This belen will teach Sam about our faith and about God. How's your Christmas decorations? 

Mommy Raquel