Monday, December 26, 2016

A truly adorable Christmas story

For my sake, I'm sharing this absolutely adorable Christmas story that's gone viral, so I can always have it on my blog and I'll always watch it whenever I want to. But I'm also sharing it with you if you haven't seen it yet because, mommies, you have GOT to watch it! It's not accurate but it's still true. And hilarious! And soooo adorable.

Dearest mommies, the Christmas story according to kids:


So now my kids think that Mary was doing laundry when she got pregnant with the baby Jesus. Oh well! Be ready to explain a lot to your kids when you watch this with them. We had to talk about the whole Christmas story, like the real one in the Bible, after watching this, and my sons still insist they like the part of Mary doing laundry when she got the good news. So we're still talking about that. We all do agree on the last line of the video:

"The new baby is going to change the world."

Oh yes, yes He did. He changed mine and I hope He changes yours, my dear Loyal Readers. May you accept Jesus Christ in your weary, wonderful hearts and let Him lead you to a life of abundance, joy, and peace that passes all understanding.

From our family to yours, we wish you, "Merry Christmas!"


Saturday, December 24, 2016

My blessed blogger Christmas

At the National Book Store gift-shopping event. 
Just a quick little post to say thanks before we go off to see our loved ones!

My blogger life is a blessing. Because of National Book Store and Landers Superstore, may mga gifts na ako for everyone. Because of Tony Ahn, we have duck ham for Noche Buena. Because of Lady's Choice, meron na akong pang-macaroni salad. Because of Jolly, we have food. Period! Wala akong ginastos halos ngayong Pasko! I love my work! Dear God, thank you for what I do!

And no this isn't a sponsored post but I do live a sponsored life haha But joking aside, I'd like to thank a LOT of people for helping me and my family this 2016.

To the dearest brands who blessed me this year with campaigns, collaborations, and brand ambassadorships, thanks soooo much! Dear Jolly, Smart, Biogenic, Windows 10, Alaska Milk, Physiogel, Avon, Skechers, Flawless, Nutella, Mango, Glad Wrap, Belo Baby, Philips Avent, National Book Store, Elin.ph, Ariel, Landers Superstore, EverydayMe, Security Bank, Traveloka, Fern-C kidz, Vita Cubes, Adobomall, SM Home, Solane, Domex, Lady's Choice, McCormick, Pampers, and Heinz, you have blessed me and my family this year. Thank you!!!

To my amazing friends in digital PR and marketing agencies, thank you for all the work you send my way. Dearest Fuse, Red Events, FleishmanHillard, Fuentes, Huddle Room, Dominguez, Nuffnang, Gamechangers, Bridges, Creative Juice, and Icons, thank you for always including me in your campaigns. Thanks for taking care of bloggers and I hope you enjoyed working with me as much as I enjoyed working with you.

To my blogger friends who recommended me for campaigns, thank you for thinking of me. Nikki Tiu of Askmewhats, Rowena Lei of Animetric's World, and Monica Manzano of My Little Globetrotters, you just proved my sincere belief that a dog-eat-dog world is not how we should be. We should all help each other succeed!

To the lovely people who signed up for my blogging workshops, thanks so much! I was very encouraged by your enthusiasm and I also learned a lot from you. I'm planning more workshops in 2017 because you gave me a huge confidence boost. I hope you start blogging na and I also hope you apply all the tips and tricks I shared with you. I want you all to be HUGE influencers!

Last but definitely not the least, to all my dear Loyal Readers... THANK YOU. I've been blogging for 10 years and sometimes I get tired of it, especially when I'm punished by trolls (usually people I know haha) for putting myself out there. But thanks for sticking around. Thanks for all the kind words. Thanks for the grammar edits haha. Thanks for encouraging me when I'm feeling low and cheering for me when I'm about to do new stuff and even telling me off nicely when I'm all bitchy.

Pang-Manila Filmfest 2016 na ang speech ko! Hindi pwede pang-Oscars kasi 2 minutes lang ang allowed sa speeches ng mga winners. Medyo 20 minutes na ito haha

Oh my, what a year! And what a good year. And a bad year, too. This year wasn't a good one for a lot of people. I must confess that my relationships with my family and friends (well, come to think of it, they weren't really my friends) have suffered because of the ugly elections and the even uglier days that followed. But other than that little glitch, 2016 was actually a great year for me. My marriage, my wonderful little boys, and the friendships that do matter have kept me happy and full of hope for a better world. And it IS a good world filled with good people doing good things. I just thanked a lot of you good people for making my life good! And I hope to do the same for others—to be good and to do good. Thank you all and Merry Christmas!
   

Friday, December 23, 2016

Don't forget your toilet this Christmas!

This post is brought to you by Domex.

If you live in a house with three little boys, you'd know that the bathroom is a scary place. And if you live with that horror, you kinda get used to it hahaha. Joke joke. Our bathroom's fine! Maybe the grout needs more scrubbing (sigh) but at least the bathrooms are clean. Thanks to my husband and his favorite (as in he will never use anything else!) multi-purpose cleanser, Domex!

Despite the different bottle colors, the concentrate inside is the same color. Wala lang! Observation lang haha

Now, the holidays means we have to clean our home extra. Because visitors, you know! It's not just about presenting your house in the best way possible; it's really also about more people means more germs and you may like the people visiting your home but you definitely do not like the germs they bring. Yes, I said it. Our dearly beloved are full of germs!

So today, the day before Christmas Eve, make sure you give your bathrooms a thorough cleansing, and when all the family and friends leave, make sure you do another, even more thorough cleanup! My recommendation is Domex. I got extra new bottles of Domex (thanks, Domex, Unilever, Bridges PR, and Animetric's World!) when I went to their fun event a few weeks ago. It was a great lunch attended by lots of media and mommy bloggers.


The event was to raise awareness for World Toilet Day. Yes, such a day exists. It's even a United Nations initiative and you can't get more legit than having the United Nations declare a day of observance of the global sanitation crisis. It's their way of making people discuss toilet sanitation, admittedly a gross subject and not something people want to talk about. Not even me. But when I learned something very important about health at the Domex event, I was ready to talk about gross stuff on my working mama blog! 

At the World Toilet Day event, I learned this: "In the developing world, 443 million days of school are missed because of diseases caused by germs found in unsanitary toilets. That is equivalent to 1 month of school missed by every child in the Philippines." That's horrible! Our kids not only get sick, they also miss days of valuable education. As working moms, we are affected doubly because when our kids miss school, we also miss work. Not only do we have to worry about our poor babies, we also now worry because of work we have to leave behind. So this is an issue that should be of extra concern to us!   


Here's just three of the gross and dangerous germs lurking in our toilet:
1. Fungi, which causes skin diseases
2. Gram negative bacteria, which causes diarrhea
3. Myco bacteria, which is the cause of tuberculosis

In the last three years, Domex, with Philippine Public Health Association, Maxicare, and UNICEF, has been pushing the One Million Clean Toilets project, which aims to educate 1 million people on proper toilet sanitation. This year, Domex wants to address homemakers especially because we moms are the vanguards of our family's health. If we can keep our homes, especially our bathrooms, clean, and then teach our children (girls AND boys!) about cleanliness, then we're looking at an entire generation who will become health-conscious.


So, dear mommies, let's join the One Million Clean Toilets project! Say this:

"A toilet that smells nice and looks clean is NOT enough! It must be germ-free. I pledge to use Domex, a special cleanser that is 5x thicker than other bleach, lasts up to 7 flushes, can access hard-to-reach areas inside your toilet, thus thoroughly cleansing the bathroom and effectively killing nasty germs, bacteria and viruses."

Let our 2017 be much better and healthier! Let's keep our kids protected from germs by 

beginning proper cleanliness in our home. I already joined the #1MCleanToilets movement. Join, too, dear mommies! 

Like the Facebook page of Domex Philippines to know more! Then don't forget to make your toilet Domex-clean today! That's what I'm doing after publishing this. Happy Friday before the crazy holiday weekend, mommies!