The Rubber Band Trick

We first heard about the Rubber band Trick when we were watching Criminal Minds.  I'm not sure if all of you are familiar with the series, but there was a scene in one episode there where they were all eating in a Chinese restaurant and one of them, Agent Reid, was struggling with his chopsticks so another agent, JJ, helped him by putting a rubber band on them.  She twirled the rubber band around and around and voila!  Agent Reid was able to eat with the chopsticks like a pro.

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Our family loves Japanese.  Although we've already memorized how to ask for a spoon and fork in Thai (shon som, na ka), my 7-year old always wants to try eating with chopsticks.  Unfortunately, she doesn't know how so Richard and I thought the rubber band trick would be perfect for Aly.

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What exactly is the rubber band trick anyway?  I Googled it and I found this and this.  Basically, you need the paper sleeve that the chopsticks come in and a piece of rubber band.  You twirl the rubber band again and again, at the top of the chopsticks.  Then, you fold the paper sleeve again and again until it's small enough to create a small gap when you put it between the chopsticks right under the rubber band.  It's supposed to look like this:

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Rubber band on top and the folded paper sleeve below it.

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Watch how my Aly turns into a chopsticks pro.

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Getting a grip on things.

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Try to get the paper napkin with your chopsticks, babe.

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Look, mom!  I did it!

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Eating her tonkatsu with chopsticks (I had to cut the meat into small pieces first so she can easily pick then up)

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So easy to use chopsticks, mommy!

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Serious!

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It was a fun mommy-daughter lunch date!

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Aly loved the rubber band trick so much, I always bring a couple of rubber bands in my bag because my big girl wants to impress her dad with her newfound chopstick skills.

Christmas

I love Christmas! I love the family get-togethers, the food, the parties, the festive spirit, the decor, Christmas shopping, the gift giving...it's a very happy season that's why it's my favorite holiday of all!
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Christmas in the Valdez household is a big production (for me at least) -- I make the list, I buy the gifts, I wrap them all by myself...by the time the holidays are over, I usually end up exhausted but I wouldn't have it any other way.

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This is how we celebrate Christmas -- Domestic Goddess style!

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Let's start with the Christmas gift list...

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Every year, I have a Christmas notebook. This is where I write our Christmas gift list. It has to be small because it should fit perfectly in my bag so I can bring it with me everytime I go to the mall.

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This one is for 2008.

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I divide the list into two groups: kids and adults, then I divide them further into boys/girls/babies, male/female.

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I also put headings on top of each page i.e. Richard's family, my family, Aly's classmates, Richard's friends, my friends, etc. This way, I can tell if I missed a name and it's easy for me to group the gifts together.

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Now for the gift wrapper. I love wrapping gifts! The packaging and presentation is very important for me so every year I try to come up with a certain motif for our gift wrapper. Last year was hot pink and silver.

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I bought the gift wrapper and ribbon in Chatuchak.

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My original plan was to make a bow, but no matter how much I tried, I just couldn't get it right. So, I decided to just shred the ribbon and curl them.

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It was a bit tedious, but I was happy with how it came out.

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I had a hard time looking for the right gift tags. I found these nice, shiny ones in Paragon (thank you, Jenn for the tip!). I thought these was cardboard, pero sticker pala.

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This is how the tags look with the gift. For the kids, I added stars, while for the adults, I just left them plain.

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I think it took me a total of seven days to wrap all our gifts. Before we left for Manila, I had to make sure that all our gifts for our Bangkok friends were wrapped, ready and delivered. Then, I just wrapped the rest of the gifts when we were in Manila. We brought around ten kilos of cardboard boxes, wrappers and paper bags alone! Hindi pa kasama yung gifts dun.

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It was really tiring, but it was fun. Making other people happy and seeing the smiles on their faces was really worth all the trouble. I am also lucky to have a husband who is very generous. He taught me the true meaning of the old saying that giving truly is better than receiving.

Annual Christmas Party with My AC Friends

I always look forward to our traditional Christmas party with my AC friends for two reasons: #1 because I love these people! We've known each other since gradeschool/highschool, way before we even learned about make-up, boys and how to pluck our eyebrows. You girls are lucky I don't have any gradeschool pics here with me, or else I would have posted them for everyone to see! Haha! #2 our parties are so much fun! Hanging out with your bestbuds, doing nothing but eat, eat, eat and laugh all night...what else can be more fun than that? By the way, let me share with you some of our party traditions/customs. You might pick up a thing or two for your next party.

• Potluck is the way!
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• Each person should bring a bag of chips and a bottle of soda.


• We always have a theme because it's easier to think of the other details once you have one.


• We always have games. You're never too old to have fun!


• Exchange gift is a must! Bring something unisex.


• No matter how hard we try to make adjustments each year, they always arrive late!
  

This year, our theme was masquerade ball. We use the theme mostly for the decor. Sometimes, we also apply the theme to the food if it's easy to execute. Pero medyo mahirap yata yun with this year's theme so we decided to stick to the decor na lang. For the costume...well, it's not easy to travel all the way to Tagaytay in a big gown, so wear something sparkly, dressy, etc. There was, however, a slight misunderstanding about the theme details/attire because someone showed up in full masquerade regalia...I'll tell you more about it later.

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Anyway, let me start my kwento with the party decor. I love decorating! I didn't have time to buy stuff, except for the masks and garlands that I bought from Bangkok, so I had to make the best out of the stuff that I already have. the venue, by the way, was my parents' house in Tagaytay.

I'm so happy I kept last year's Christmas decor! I was able to use my old gold ribbons, gold trimmings and Christmas balls again. The black vase and the silver tray are wedding gifts. The martini glasses are my mom's.

Chocolate Kiss trio. The one in the red wrapper is cherry cordial (milk chocolate kiss with cherry flavored ganache filling), blue wrapper is truffle (milk chocolate kiss with truffle centers), and silver/red wrapper is candy cane flavor (white chocolate kiss with candy cane bits).

The metallic masks (thb29 for a pack of two), feathered masks (Thb50 per piece) and garland (Thb9 per meter) are from Bangkok.

Table centerpiece.

Pat bought these masks at a bazaar for only Php100 each. Tama ba Pat?

Now let's talk about the chow...

I made roast pork with gravy...

...and spicy bacon pasta. This dish is a Bangkok discovery. I wanted to share it with my friends back home. I'm happy that my friends loved it!

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...and this killer chocolate-caramel cake from Aggy's. Soo sinfully delicious!

Wala pa ba sila? Gutom na kami! As expected, my friends arrived fashionably late.

Hanggang tingin na lang kayo. Sorry, no alcohol for you guys!

Picture muna bago kumain.

Aris, Katab + Jofe.

Bianca + Alyannah.

Pat, Abi + Kay Anne.

Fides prepared two games for the group.

For the first game, she needed two teams with three members each, girls vs boys.

Nga pala, meet our game master/best-in-costume winner. Winner sya kasi she was the only one who showed up wearing a costume. Haha! When she went to Sr Pedro to buy the roast chicken, pinagtitinginan daw sya ng mga tao kasi naka-bihis mayaman sya. Haha! Fids, you're such a good sport! So if anyone in our group deserves this kind of mistake, it should only happen to you! Haha!

Meet the players. They're laughing because Fides was explaining the mechanics to them.

Each player has to run to the front, get one paper bag, open it and eat the contents -- whatever is inside. The first team to finish wins.

Nagagalit na yung team mates nila kasi para silang ibon kung kumain!

Next, it was Richard...

...and Abi's turn. Habol sila to make up for Aris and Ria's kabagalan.

Last players, Jofe and Katab. It was a close fight!

Pero ang boys pa rin ang nanalo.

Game #2 was musical chairs.

Practice round muna.

Si Fides and unang natanggal...

...okay, bawasan natin ng isang upuan...

...and so on...

...hanggang si Kay Anne and Ria na lang ang natira.

Whattaface! Akala mo milyon ang mapapanalunan nila. Haha!

And the winner is...Kay Anne! Yey!

Next, we had our white elephant exchange gift. Each one of us had to bring something that we already have in your house. It can be an old gift that you do not like, or something lying around in your house that you do not need. The weirder the gift, the better.

First, we had to show off our gifts. Fides brought a picture frame.

Kerwin brought a plate made from Pinatubo ash.

Si Aris naman, orange teddy bear.

Richard brought a flat-screen tv. Haha! It's not a real tv, it just looks like one. It'a actually a lamp with a picture that scrolls sideways when you plug it on. This was the most kwela gift kasi pinag-aagawan nila ito. We all took turns in choosing the gift that we want.

Ang saya saya!

The final round was timed. We had 30 seconds to exchange our gifts. We had to stand up para mas mabilis kasi whatever gift you're holding when the 30 seconds are up, that will be your final gift. It was a riot!

Fides got the much-coveted flat screen tv!

Showing off our white elephants. I got the orange teddy bear which Alyannah loved!

Thank you, tito Aris!

Here's Fides showing off her new tv...

...to the amazed audience.

She even gave a free demo to the kids!

Up next: exchange gift naman. Pero pa-kiss daw muna Aris sabi ni Katab.

O, Kerwin, halika dito ikaw naman. Mwahahaha!!!

For the exchange gift, we all had to bring a unisex gift worth at least Php300.

And we used the same prcoedure for the white elephant. The last round was really intense. This time, yung gift naman ni Katab yung star. We were all curious about what's inside the crumpled piece of wrapper.

Ria won it! Aba, dollars pala ang laman nun!

Richard got a belt bag, which he exchanged with Pat's bag organizer and toiletry kit.

Posing with our gifts!

Aly with Ashley.

One last pic before going home.

Oh, gosh...I had a blast! We were practically laughing the whole night! Thanks to Katab's antics and the crazy gifts and the wacky games...samahan mo pa ng tequila sunrise! Till our next Christmas party!