Christmas - indeed it is the most wonderful time of the year.
Looking back at everything that has transpired this year, I can say that it has been a very meaningful and grace-filled year -- and that is more than enough reason to celebrate Christmas with a grateful heart. Despite the many shortcomings, challenges and misunderstandings that came along the way, my heart is still grateful that we were able to still find ourselves together and stronger in our convictions and faith.
Our hearts are also grateful for the friends whom we travelled with this year. The adventures, shared experiences, and that sense of being in a family will always be treasured in our hearts -these will forever be beautiful memories in the many years to come. And my heart is filled with joy and gladness because we are so blessed to be surrounded with good friends.
For our family back in our home country, we also wish them well. There may be tough times but with His faithfulness, we are able to surpass the hurdles. Indeed God makes things possible - He always makes a way for us despite of and inspite of.
So I hope that we continue to have a grateful heart, and to give love to others who need it.
Celebrate the most wonderful time of the year with your loved ones, family and friends.
I have always loved weddings... I always find them beautiful, sweet and perfect in their own way. But I love hearing stories of the engagement, and how the relationship blossomed, better. How the groom proposed, whether it was love at first sight, or if it started with friendship. Being a romantic, I love watching sappy old movies about weddings and engagements.
I learned some high school friends just got engaged and are now planning for their wedding. It would really be a great idea to send them engagement gifts but I really have no idea what to give since I don't know their interests as a couple. But perhaps I can play safe by looking for a personalized engagement present that will somehow show them that I care and something that will be memorable for them.
It could be a heart wedding canvas like in the photo shown above, with their names written inside the heart and text below it that said: "It doesn't matter where you go in life... What you do... Or how much you have... It's who you have beside you." That is just sweet right?
Many of my friends have already been married. I wasn't able to come to their weddings. But maybe I can make up for it by giving them personalized gifts. After all, there will always be wedding anniversaries, and they are a good excuse to send such a heart wedding canvas their way. :D
It is love month and well, one cannot help but be all mushy and cheesy even if you are not because it is just contagious. When people are in love, they do all sorts of things, even if they are corny and mushy right? And you don't even care because you are doing it out of love.
Valentine's is really no big deal for us but there are some things that just never fail to surprise me, where my hubby is concerned. Small things actually, like when hubby played The Gift on Valentine's evening at home. Or when he would tell me how much I mean to him in his own dramatic but funny way. Back on our bf-gf days, I was the one who was more mushy as I love to send love cards and letters. And since we were on a long-distance relationship for many years, he would surprise me with flowers on days when I least expect them or send me book sets that I have been dying to read. It is not often that he does these kinds of stuff and I really appreciate all the effort.
And the day he first confessed his feelings? That is something to really listen to! It is ordinarily simple and yet so cheesy! But that's another story. Lol!
We don't really give Valentine's Day much of a fuss. As a rule, we treat Valentine's Day as a family day, which means spending time together at home. No great expectations of flowers and chocolates. The fact that we are together and the affirmation that each is loved are what count the most. Last night, I just asked Hubby that we buy take out from KFC on our way home from my doctor's appointment because I am already tired. So we did.
After dinner with our little girl, we watched Sweet Home Alabama and Runaway Bride on TV while our little girl was running and playing and singing around the house, putting back the clutter that I have cleared away that morning. To relax, Hubby took out his guitar and played a rather familiar tune. It wasn't the usual Canon D or Recuerdos dela Alhambra or Lagrima, but something that I know so dear in my heart because the song represents what my heart feels. I was helping him with his German assignment, or I was rather doing it for him, when he played the song. And I stopped midway through my writing and looked up at him and smiled. We didn't have to say a word because we knew.
And if you are curious as to what song he played, it was The Gift from Jim Brickman and Martina McBride. It was really a wonderful surprise that warmed my heart.
Thanks Hanhan for the gift. You and Samantha are the gifts... and I could not ask for more. Except maybe for another little Samantha or little Vincent to add more sunshine into our lives. :D I love you.
Hello Couchers! Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! I can't wait to get started and see your pick for this week's theme: Eros / Romantic Love: When A Man Loves A Woman. Doesn't watching these romance movies make you fall in love all over again?
There's this one movie that I really enjoyed watching: P.S. I Love You which was based on a novel of the same title written by Cecelia Ahorn. My pick may be a little ironic because the story is that of a new widow. Love stories are supposed to be with happy endings of two persons, right? Anyway, this film aired in 2007 and stars Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler and Harry Connick, Jr..
Here's a synopsis I took from the Internet Movie Data Base website:
Holly Kennedy is beautiful, smart and married to the love of her life - a passionate, funny, and impetuous Irishman named Gerry. So when Gerry's life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly. The only one who can help her is the person who is no longer there. Nobody knows Holly better than Gerry. So it's a good thing he planned ahead. Before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief, but in rediscovering herself. The first message arrives on Holly's 30th birthday in the form of a cake, and to her utter shock, a tape recording from Gerry, who proceeds to tell her to get out and "celebrate herself". In the weeks and months that follow, more letters from Gerry are delivered in surprising ways, each sending her on a new adventure and each signing off in the same way; P.S. I Love You. Holly's mother and best friends begin to worry that Gerry's letters are keeping Holly tied to the past, but in fact, each letter is pushing her further into a new future. With Gerry's words as her guide, Holly embarks on a journey of rediscovery in a story about marriage, friendship and how a love so strong can turn the finality of death into a new beginning for life. Written by Orange
Care to watch the trailer? I am sure you will like this one!
Interesting eh? And here's how Gerry's last letter to Holly goes:
Dear Holly, I don't have much time. I don't mean literally, I mean you're out buying ice cream and you'll be home soon. But I have a feeling this is the last letter, because there is only one thing left to tell you. It isn't to go down memory lane or make you buy a lamp, you can take care of yourself without any help from me. It's to tell you how much you move me, how you changed me. You made me a man, by loving me Holly. And for that, I am eternally grateful... literally. If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you're sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you'll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I'm a man with no regrets. How lucky am I. You made my life, Holly. But I'm just one chapter in yours. There'll be more. I promise. So here it comes, the big one. Don't be afraid to fall in love again. Watch out for that signal, when life as you know it ends. P.S. I will always love you
It just is very touching.
What's your movie this week? Come share it with us here on Tuesday Couch Potatoes. Don't forget to enter your link in the linky below:
Thanks for joining us this week Couchers! Hope to see you all again next week for another round of Tuesday Couch Potatoes. Next week's theme: Agape / Unconditional Love: To Love Selflessly. Have a lovely Valentine's Day y'all!
I can't believe January is about to come to an end. In less than five days, we will wake up to the first day of the Love Month, which incidentally is also a Tuesday. We all know that if it is Tuesday, it is going to be Tuesday Couch Potatoes meme day. So what's in store for all of us this February on TCP? Nothing but love, love, love of course!
So to all you hopeless romantics out there, get your romantic film titles ready for Tuesday Couch Potatoes as we go ALL ABOUT LOVE!
Remember the different kinds of love? If you don't, well let me refresh your memories as they will be the basic themes for this month.
February 1. Storge / Familial Love: Because We Are a Family. Storge love is often described as a comfortable old shoe relationship comprised of natural affection and a sense of belonging to each other. This could be movies that depict the warm affection that parents have for their children or about couples who end up with each other because of the trust, acceptance and mutual respect that they have for one another.
February 8. Phileo / Friendship Love: Camaraderie and Friendship. It's the kind of love talked about by Jesus, who said: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Philia is the embodiment of everything a true, meaningful friendship represents. This love cherishes and has tender affection for the beloved but it expects a response. It is a love of relationship, comradeship, sharing, communication and friendship. While eros makes lovers, phileo makes a close companionship that is all trusting. They share each other’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, plans and dreams. I know you have lots of titles in mind for this friendship love theme.
February 15. Eros / Romantic Love: When A Man Loves A Woman. By definition, EROS is the desire to draw out all that is good, beautiful and true. It is motivated by need. It's often understood to refer primarily to sex, but that's really only one part of it - albeit a significant part. Eros involves the emotional need to elicit physical love and affection ("beautiful expression" in general) from the one you love. What's the greatest romantic love film you've seen so far then?
February 22. Agape / Unconditional Love: To Love Selflessly. The word agape often represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love. Thomas Jay Oord has defined agape as "an intentional response to promote well-being when responding to that which has generated ill-being." In his book, The Pilgrimage, author Paulo Coelho defines it as "the love that consumes," i.e., the highest and purest form of love, one that surpasses all other types of affection. Contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek refers to it as "political love". Greek philosophers at the time of Plato and other ancient authors have used forms of the word to denote love of a spouse or family, or affection for a particular activity.
These are our themes for the month of February. So now you know a little bit more about love! :D
It is the first month of the year and the theme this Thursday is Love Life Resolutions. I missed Girls Talk last Thursday and the many other Girls Talk many Thursdays before that and so I hope to be able to join from this Thursday on.
With the New Year and all, I just realized that I haven't really planned or even thought about my resolutions. Sometimes, I would think about what I want to do this year to improve myself and my relationships but I never really got around to seriously writing them down. Thanks to GT, I am obliged to do so. I think it is very important to think about what I intend to do to keep my relationship with my husband stronger and work on some of the weak points.
We've been together as a married couple for four years now and although we go through difficulties, we managed to get through them together. But ever since I started at the university last year, I have less time to take care of the essentials. So this year, I need to work on managing my time better so I can also take care of things. I am always tired and exhausted that I only have time to really take care of my little girl and often let the hubby take care of himself. I also miss our talks and morning prayers and we would just pray on our own since we have different schedules. I hope we would manage to bring that ritual back. I also hope to be more active and initiative in terms of managing the budget because that is the area where I am really very poor. Isn't it that if you have a good financial standing, you and your partner don't argue as much?
So I guess that's it for now. There are still lots of things that I need to work on but these are of the higher priority. Hehe! I hope to join again next Thursday for another edition of GT. Here's hoping that everyone manages to fulfill their love life resolutions this year.
Twelve years and four months ago today, a friendship blossomed into love. I can't believe it has been that long since I have known my husband. Every day, I discover something new in our relationship and grow to love and respect him more.
But sometimes, if you are too comfortable with the relationship, you tend to forget to be sweet and thoughtful and you sometimes lose your romantic ways. However, the failure to be romantic does not necessarily mean that love is gone. Love is still there of course, but it has been put at the backseat to give way to other things like work and taking care of the children and raising a family. Many married couples go through that phase in their relationship and it is up to them to decide whether to rekindle the flame or continue where they are now.
A question then comes to mind. For those of you who have been married for a number of years now, do you remember the last time when he surprised you with a bouquet of flowers? Was it on your birthday? your anniversary, or two months ago? Do you remember if it were roses or tulips or sunflowers?
If you do remember when and what kind, then consider yourself lucky because your husband still is the simpatico that you have known him to be. For those who don't recall, well you must be getting old or it could be that your husband is just not the type of person to do such things. When they fail to send you flowers, it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't love you or don't remember those special dates. It just means that they are not the type of persons who give flowers on just about every occasion.
As for me, the last time my husband gave me flowers was last year... and he only bought them because I told him to buy some roses because it was for a cause. Lol!
Gawd, I missed last week's edition of Girls Talk but if I had joined last week, the movie that I would be watching with a friend will be the sequel of the film Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Why? Because, I too haven't seen it yet! I so enjoyed watching the first one so I wouldn't mind if Marce Kaye will treat me on a movie date for the sequel. Lol! I would also recommend watching The Bucket List with a friend. It's a great movie to watch with a good friend.
And for this week, the movie that I would highly recommend watching with someone special is 50 First Dates. Why this movie? Because Hubby and I love this movie for all the mushiness, laughter and wonderfully warm feeling that it evokes. This is one of the many movies that Hubby and I love watching. I love Drew and Hubby loves Adam so a movie with both of them in it is something that we absolutely have to watch.
For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the story is about Lucy who has this fictional amnesia where each day's events disappear from her memory overnight, and of Henry, a womanizing marine-life veterinarian who finds himself serious at pursuing Lucy. Learning about her condition and finding himself falling in love with Lucy, he devises many different ways to meet her again everyday while hoping that one day, she will retain her memories and feelings for him. Although it is a romantic comedy, with a light plot, you wouldn't have to dig deeper to see just how far and to what great lengths a person would go through just to be with the person he/she loves.
Which movie would you recommend watching with your special someone? If you have no idea, check out what the other girls are recommending!
i wonder how you are doing these days... It has been more than 15 years since I last saw you. I have a confession to make. I was so smitten by you way back in high school... As the song goes, "you had me at hello." I could just look into your eyes and drown in it. I just find you so adorable and simpatico. It was in first year high school when I felt my heart skip a beat. You instantly caught my attention. Just seeing you completes my day. And because we were classmates then, everyday is a happy day. We get along well and even thought you my friend. I was happiest when we were paired together for our mini-play in our English class. We didn't get to rehearse the last scenes because we never really got to that during our class practices. But I was in cloud nine when I heard you say that you care for me. Whether you uttered them because your role asked for it or not, I wanted to believe then that you meant them. LOL! Summer came and just when school was about to end, I almost believed that the feeling was mutual.
Things changed though when we turned second year. I was hoping we'd be classmates again but fate conspired against us. You suddenly acted as if I were a stranger to you. I wondered why... It made me sad yet I can't help myself but admire you from a distance. As a distraction, I drowned myself in academic work. I would hear about you every now and then but the news are no good because they are about you getting along well with another girl. That did not stop me from daydreaming about you though. Wishing that the circumstances were different and that we are going out together. But I guess God has a greater plan for me.
I hope all is well with you these days and that you are happy with what you are doing. I have no news from you since graduation and even if I am active in our egroups, I was too proud(?) or too shy to ask how you were. Thank you for those good old memories that leaves me feeling bittersweet. I wish I had known what you felt too but then again, it doesn't matter anymore. I am happy where I am now. I pray that you are too. God bless you A.
This is an entry for Mys' Letters That I'll Never Send. I never thought that I would be able to pull writing this one off. But I guess it's about time I let it out of my system. Hehe! So now you know me a little bit more. :D
I know every Mommy is excited for the weekend to come. It is Heart's Day on Sunday and so before everyone gets busy with their Valentine's Day celebration, myself included, allow me to post my entry for this week's Mommy Moments theme: A Message of Love.
Words would not suffice to express how much I love my family. I hope this letter to my two loves will somehow get my message across.
Because YOU complete me...
Dear Daddy and Sam,
It goes without saying that you both complete me. I can't imagine where I'd be right now without you two. I can be grumpy, moody, and hot-tempered at times but that doesn't mean that I love you less. I will always love you... I would even fight to the death if need be. Life has never been the same because you both are with me. The best thing there is in this world is seeing you both sleeping in your odd positions and hearing you snoring softly and sometimes loudly because I am reassured that I have somebody that I can rightly claim as mine. My heart glows with pride each time I see you spending time together and laughing at a joke that even Daddy can't understand. I even like it when you don't eat the food that I prepare sometimes because the taste is new to you. My pride is hurt a little but it tells me to be better with my cooking and to not venture into unknown recipes. (Hihihi!) I may not be the perfect Mommy and wife, but for me, you are the next best thing to PERFECT. And I am most thankful that despite the challenges life has offered us and may come our way, I know that we will always be together to see them through.
Today's theme for Girls Talk! is My Valentine's Date for 2010. The theme for Letters That I'll Never Send is To Someone I Love. Since my Valentine's date and the one I love is one and the same person, I might as well combine my entry for this week's theme.
A date with my handsome prince when we were still going out.
To my Dearest Hanhan,
Remember our bf-gf days? I used to write you TONS of looonnnggg love letters and send you super mushy cards. Sadly, you are not the letter-writing type of person but I do treasure the ones that you send on those rare occasions. They always make me feel special and loved. I have even kept the short note that you gave me which was written on the back of a used paper. That was my most favorite of them all! I should remember to bring them with us when we go home to the Philippines. I have kept them safe and buried in my closet and I hope they didn't throw it away just yet. And I think we should also bring with us the letters that I sent you. You did hide them somewhere, right?
I love to reminisce the good old days. You always took time then to take me out on dates like it was the most important and sensible thing to do. But things always change. Our priorities changed especially when we had Samantha. Our world seemed to revolve around her and we find it difficult to leave her with our friends. Our attempts to watch a movie together would always fail because we always find the reason to postpone it just so we won't leave Samantha with friends. But you know what? Going on a date with you AND Samantha doubles the fun and the excitement. I couldn't be any happier spending my Valentine's Day with the loves of my life: YOU and Samantha.
And I just want to say THANK YOU Hanhan for everything. You have seen me at my worst and yet loved me still. Our LOVE has been tested one too many times... It has never always been smooth and easy, yet you stuck with me till the end. You have more than enough reasons to leave yet you didn't, and for that I am thankful. I know that the more than 12 years of having known each other is what has glued us together. And I am looking forward to more blissful years ahead. I know there will be bumps ahead but I also believe that with you by my side, everything shall go well.
I know you already know but I want to say this again:I LOVE YOU.
Always yours,
Kikamz
This is a combo entry for Letters That I'll Never Send and Girls Talk! Want more? Click on the badges below. Or better yet, JOIN us!
It is FEBRUARY already! Whew! The days seem to pass me by with a flash. Hehe! I would like to welcome you all to the February 2nd edition of Tuesday Couch Potatoes where we post about a movie each week. This week's theme is Favorite Love Story Movie. I know each of you has a favorite love story to share. It may have struck a chord in your heart, or the lines were just so cheesy, mushy and romantic that it left you smiling from ear to ear, or it told of the one great love that you wish you have, that you have lost or you now enjoy. I can't wait to read your entries for this week my dear Couchers.
Last week, we had Courtroom Drama Movies. I was surprised to find that I missed Nuts, a 1987 movie starring Barbara Streissand. Riza of Pink Candy Glitters gave a fantastic review about the movie and so it now goes to my long Movies-To-Watch List.
And here's my pick for this week: A Walk To Remember, a 2002 romance film based on the romance novel of the same title by Nicholas Sparks, one of my favorite romance novel authors. I guess most of you have seen this movie and instead of giving you a review, I will tell why it had me fall in love again.
1. I watched this movie with my then-BF-now-Hubby when he came home to the Philippines for his Spring Break. 2. It was a very wholesome movie. There were no sex scenes just to prove that it is a romance film. 3. The lines were very well written. One of my faves was when Jaime read her favorite passage from the Bible, the one from 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a and 13. Love is patient, love is kind... Sounds familiar, right? 4. It showed that love lasts forever, even if the one loved has long left this earth. 5. It made me realize that every step we take should be treasured because we never know if we will ever pass that way again. That love comes at the most unexpected moments. 6. Loved the scene when Jaime was in two places at once. That was very creative. Hehe! 7. The soundtrack, The Moment I Saw You Cry, was just perfect for the movie. 8. It left me thinking, "What if I die young and left a husband? Will I also have the same impact to him as Jaime had on Langdon?"
If you are joining us this week, be sure to enter your favorite Love Story Movie's link in the MckLinky below so that others can visit and comment on your entries too!
Next week, we will feature another Love story movie, this time LOVE pertaining to Children or Kids. Hope to see you all again next week, Couchers. Happy TCP and may LOVE always prevail!
As Fr. Pedro Arruper, SJ said: "Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."
Update:
My first ever give-away is now UP! Click here for more details!
