December is here and you can really feel it in the air, literally, that is.
I love the weather and the cold mornings. Makes it harder to get up but I love that the cool air lasts almost throughout the day making it more plesant to walk outdoors. The shoppers though have not yet quite gone out in full force. Though the malls are all decked beautifully in Christmas colors - Rustan's Makati is especially magical and I also love the underwater theme over at Shangril-la Mall - the shoppers are not quite there yet and I'm enjoying the quiet that it affords, for now.
We were at The Podium yesterday to catch "Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium" which is a great movie to watch with the kids. Many teachable moments there about the power of believing in oneself and in one's dreams and of course in moving forward in spite of. No crowds at the Podium and so it was very pleasant to shop around. Bumped in my mom and brother and we all had coffee at Segafredo after lunch. We planned to all get together again on the 15th when the mall-wide sale would be ongoing. Crowds galore.
This Christmas I want to give gifts that give back. One of the nicest ones I've found are these bags from Ichay Bulaong that are super reasonably priced and give back in many ways. That's what you call a truly meaningful gift with a bang for the buck. Check out the rest of her bags here and read about the wonderful ways by which her livelihood program is helping the women of Batangas. These bags really make cool, Christmas presents. If you know of any other vendors who make gifts that give back, please send me a link to their site.
Online shopping is another thing that I find myself doing a lot nowadays. There are so many young entreprenurs who sell their wares online and I am continually amazed by their creativity and even better, how reasonable their wares are! Name it - clothes, bags, accesories, shoes, abubots -- everything! For example, the cute charm bracelet here is from Claylettes. I discovered the wonders of online shopping through my daughter P and now, aside from watching "Grey's Anatomy" together, we send each other links to our favorite Multiply shops. Many of these young women have become my Multiply online buddies and I enjoy browsing their sites and inter-acting with them whenever time allows.
Today I am busy getting ready for my classes this evening and a Bible study later on tonight, and trying to complete a Christmas list with the objective of doing all my shopping by the 15th of the month. Over dinner last night, while talking about our lists, we decided to give loot bags (with candies, chocolates and either Pokemon of Hannah Montana items) to L's third grade classmates. "Loot bags?" he asked wide-eyed. "Yes, diba it's Jesus' birthday?" P replied. "Oh yes, we can tag them Happy Birthday Jesus!" he grinned and agreed immediately.
Don't you just love December?
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