New journeys and increased faith...: Maligayang Pasko!

Maligayang Pasko (Merry Christmas)!

My last several weeks have been filled with Christmas Parties! It has been so fun to celebrate Christmas with so many different groups of people…

At our Girls Group Christmas party we read the Christmas Story together. Then, we decorated cupcakes with green and red frosting and sprinkles. We also used a toaster oven, markers, and small plastic cups to make ornaments!

A few days later we travelled 4 hours out to the Quezon Province to the city of Lucena. There, we had 2 different parties.

We left Lucena and drove a few more hours to the Batangas Port and boarded a Bonka Boat.

We road on the boat for a couple of hours and landed in White Beach which is on the island of Mindoro. We the travelled about 15 more minutes to Tamaraw Beach Resort. It was beautiful! We spent 4 days right on the beach. It was wonderful to be out of the city… away from the noise, traffic, and smog. It was a very relaxing trip!

My home for the 4 days we were there

My view from the front porch... yes, thats the ocean.

We travelled back to Manila and finished up planning for more parties. Our kids group party was on Christmas Eve.

Rudolph Relay Race

Christmas Sing-a-long with Pastor Greg

The Nativity is complete!

excited about getting their candy bag and a new 20 peso bill! (50 cents)

Later that night we had our Adult church party.

Washer Game

Hot Dogs on a stick and Spaghetti.

Christmas was much different for me this year. It was my first Christmas away from my family. It was hard in many ways, but I am thankful to have the experience of being removed from an “Amercanized Christmas” I didn’t buy a single present, but I did get to think about the ultimate gift that my Savior gave to me… and I got to be a part of a culture that doesn’t focus on having more and more stuff… a tradition I am happy to make a part of my future holiday plans.

A few days after Christmas we had our last party. It was a party for all of the employees of the subdivision I live in. I had the privilege of being in charge of the decorations for the night. I had so much fun making them. It was a great night!