Cutty

... and hide.  That's what I want to do, right now. I committed a major booboo.  I accidentally handed my husband's travel bag as a gift to my Tita.   It was packaged the same way.  So when I grabbed it from under the tree, I thought it was the right gift bag.  No wonder, I still have the gift I intended to give my Tita.  I kept on wondering what I gave her since she thanked me for such a nice gift.  When I figured it out, I called up my cousin about it.  Today, I will replace it with another bag.  I would have let it go, if the bag weren't so special.  Mapapamahal pa ko, because of my boo-boo. On hindisight, di ba siya nagtaka na may price pa and it was just in the store's paper bag? Still, it was my fault, my booboo. If you were in my place, what would you do? 

In last four hours, I got 17 cake orders for Friday.  Six are for Vic's colleagues, 10 for Father dear and one for my cousin.  Then I'd have to add another one to raffle off at my choir's Christmas party and several more for my neighbors.     Looks like I'll be baking the whole day tomorrow.  Thank God I'm finished with my Christmas shopping.

... just around the corner.  I'm ashamed to admit that with too many obligations, I have not allowed myself to feel the true meaning of Christmas.  Sadly, Christmas has always been an excuse to indulge and to excessively accumulate stuff.  It has always been the busy season of the year when traffic has reached gridlock status, when there are cakes to bake,  music to learn, and numerous obligations to fulfill.  With all these, I tell you, Christmas is not easy to find.  There are just too many distractions. So, to catch up on what needs to be done before Christmas, MORTIFICATION will be my theme for this final week of Advent.  Maybe, by focusing on other people's good traits, curbing my tongue, and by practicing patience, tolerance and selflessness, the TRUE Christmas spirit will spring back into my life. Hopefully, with a renewed heart, I can easily welcome the true meaning of Christmas.

Have you heard of that superstition?  They say that after two failed attempts, the third will most likely succeed.   That's exactly what happened to our yaya's 3rd attempt to get a passport.  After so much hassle, she finally came back with some good news.  I am hoping that there wont be any other delays so she can get it in time for our departure. Now that she can tag along, we can bring Bettina with us.  We will be complete this coming New Year! It will be different this time.  For the past 4 years, we've celebrated New Year's Eve cooped up in our hotel room.  It looks like Vic and I can slip out on New Year's Eve, while the kids are asleep. I can hardly wait to plan our stay.  But wait, I still have to search for Bettina's passport's delivery receipt first.  I hope I find it.  Otherwise, I'd have another problem. In the meantime,  I am Cathy's Kitchen's slave.

This the reason I've been busy the past few weeks. for smaller cakes and bars   for regular-sized cakes and tortes These new boxes are eco-friendly, manufactured and printed by Scala and Anonas Press.  The designs were done in collaboration with my trusted artist and cousin-in-law, Kuya Boyette. Cathy's Kitchen is now accepting orders for the holidays.  Email SweetDelightsbyCathy@yahoo.com for orders or inquiries.

In the past few weeks, I've been gathering requirements for our yaya's passport application.  For our year-end trip, we are planning to bring all three kids and one help since we can not manage all three. For our first appearance, I've asked her to get her birth certificate from NSO, a baranggay ID, her Fetcher's ID and the ID from our subdivision.  Since she doesn't have any other government issued IDs, I was hoping that those were enough to prove her identity.  So when we went to DFA to get her passport and Bettina's, I wasn't surprised that she was asked to present more documents.  We finished Bettina's application within two hours, thanks to the courtesy lane.  Yaya, on the other hand, was instructed to get her documents from her hometown.  The following day, her mother managed to get a transcribed copy of her birth certificate from the local Civil Registrar, unearth past school IDs and diploma and was able to secure a copy of her Form 137.  By...