Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Morning!

We woke up real early to get ready for Church. Came home around 10.30am and the first thing we did were to open all our presents. We take turn for each of us to open up all our presents first and I get to open last because mine was huge.

Diana looking for her presents.

She was happy with what she got :) We also got her a huge suitcase for her to take with her to Germany.

Next is Carlos turn
The most anxious moment for me. Wondering what he got for me! You know what I was saying here "why so much garbage in here"
Still have no clue what is in there except a whole bunch of paper! Keep digging!!
See what I got!! Can you guess yet?


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A NEW CANON REBEL XSI CAMERA!!! This is my dream camera. I was hoping to get another digital camera from him but not this but I am so glad he got it for me as every food bloggers dream of having a DSLR camera like this. Now he said he must send me for some photography lesson in order to use this camera. Thank you Sweetie.




Ok, time to make some waffles for breakfast!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Happy Holidays!!

Christmas is just a day away and I am finally done with my Christmas shopping. I waited until the last minutes because of the awful weather. We have been having rain, snow and frigging cold for the past weeks. This is the kind of weather that I hate and I prefer to stay at home. Since Diana is home, both of us went out shopping the whole day. Finally we are done! Everything is wrapped up and waiting to be open on Christmas morning.

Can you guess who is getting the BIGGEST box in that pile of presents? MEEEE.. I am really curious what Carlos got for me. The box is really heavy and I can't shake it!! The suspense is killing me now but I guess I have to wait until Christmas morning.

Here I would like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Baking Lesson II

I went for another baking lesson today. Since its around Christmas we learned to make Yule Log and also Chocolate. To make the yule log we learned to make the sponge cake, Italian butter cream, Hazelnut mousse and also sugar syrup.

As for the chocolate we learned how to tampered the chocolate and also to make the dark chocolate hazelnuts filling. I am not sure if I will make my own chocolate as it's a messy job.

Sponge Cake Batter
Brushing on the sugar syrup on the sponge cake.
Applying the Hazelnut mousse.
Rolling up the sponge cake.
Cut into individual log.
Decorate the sponge with Italian butter cream.
The finished Yule Log.
Filling up the Hazelnut filling in the chocolate moulds.
The decadent chocolates.
This was what I took home. They were so good!
The next month lesson will be Puff Pastry. Too bad I won't be around to take the lesson until in March 09.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Don't Forget To Smile!!

A little girl walked to and from school daily. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to the elementary school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up,along with thunder and lightning. The mother of thelittle girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school and she herself feared that the electrical storm might harm her child. Following the roar of thunder, lightning, like a flaming word, would cut through the sky. Full of concern, the mother quickly got into her car and drove along the route to her child's school. As she did so, she saw her little girl walking along, but at each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up and smile. Another and another were to follow quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.

When the mother's car drove up beside the child, she lowered the window and called to her, "What are you doing? Why do you keep stopping?"

The child answered, "I am trying to look pretty, God keeps taking my picture.

May God bless you today as you face the storms that come your way and don't forget to SMILE!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Black Friday Shopping

After the turkey meal, cleaning up, keeps away all the leftovers and putting all the dirty dishes in the dish washer I was poof. We went to bed early as we wanted to get up early for our Black Friday shopping. The 3 of us (Diana, Robin and I) start the day at 5.00am and Carlos went on his own shopping much later. He thinks we are crazy. Oh well, not as crazy as last year as we went at midnight. We finally finished with our shopping at 3.00pm. We went to the outlet first and later we hit the mall. Reach there very early in the morning and there were not many shoppers as most of them already done with their shopping at midnight. Here are some of the things we bought.

Relaxing in front of the TV after the heavy meal. All gear up for shopping later.
We went to Lancaster Tanger's Outlet.
After all the hours of shopping, just look at the trunk of the car.
Look at Carlos reactions when he opens the front door for us. He was shock to see all the bags we had on our hands.
Some of the things we bought. Let me recap the bargain we got. All clothing from Banana Republic 50% off, Gap 40%, Shoes buy one and get the other one for 50% off, Tommy 50% off, Polo less 25% for purchase above $150.00, Coach handbags at 50%, 40% and 30% and on top of that another 10% off for shopping before 10 am, Kenneth Cole briefcase 30% off. Waffle Maker less 50% and Carlos bought some electronics which I am not sure how much he paid for.


Coach addiction.



We stop by at this little diners for our Breakfast/ lunch
The little jukebox on the table.
All happy and contented with the shopping.

We mostly shop for clothing when there is good bargain especially on Black Friday so we went a bit overboard :)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving

Our thanksgiving is a small family affair. I prepared a 10 pound turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, roasted potatoes, agar agar , and baked some dinner rolls and a pumpkin pie. Started cooking and baking from 8.00am and we had our meal around 4.00pm. Man, I was tired but am glad that everyone enjoyed the delicious meal.

This year the turkey turn out pefect. Nicely brown still moist and juicy on the inside.
Bread stuffing
Roasted potatoes

Green bean caserole

Freshly baked dinner rolls

Homemade pumpkin pie

Agar-agar

After the heavy meal we are all geared up for Black Friday shopping. Stay tune to see what we bought.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

This is what we woke up to this morning. The snow is still coming down fast and furious now. Carlos is taking some vacation time all the way up to next week and we thought of going down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art this morning. So, there goes our plan as we don't want to drive around in this weather. I remember the last winter we had our first snow on the 7th of January and for this winter we had it as early as November.




Touching Story of A Little Boy

I received this touching story from one of my friend and thought I should share it with you. This story really touched me and I hope it will touch your heart too!

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier hand this little boy some money back. The boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old. The Cashier said, ' I ' m sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll'

Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him. "Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?" The old lady replied "You know that you don't have enough money to buy this doll, my dear". Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look a round. She left quickly.

The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand. Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to "It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas. She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her"

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry. But he replied to me sadly. " No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there."

His eyes were so sad while saying this. "My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister."

My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said: "I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall."
Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me " I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't forget me. I love my mommy and I wish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister."

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly. I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. "Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?"

"OK" he said, "I hope I do have enough" I added some of my money to his with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money. The little boy said: "Thank you God for giving me enough money!"

Then he looked at me and added," I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!. I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose. My mommy loves white roses"

A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket.I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started.I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away. I couldn't stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.

I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed for ever.. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE !!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr..Winter Is Here!

We have been having some cold snap of winter here in PA and its not even winter yet. It’s dark by 4 pm and rains all the time and this morning the temperature hovered just below 25 degree and its so freaking cold. We have frost and some snow on top of the car and it’s snowing now. I can’t imagine what this coming winter will be like. I hope we won’t have too much snow to shovel. On the lighter note I will be going back to a warmer weather back home which I am not looking forward to either. I guess I can’t have it both ways!