Warm New Year Greetings

Hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas celebration.  Sending you warm and heartfelt New Year wishes. May your hearts be filled with love, joy, and hope this 2013! God bless.

Embracing 2012

Happy New Year! Looking back at 2011, I could say that it was a good year for us. My family and I have been truly blessed. I peacefully bid 2011 goodbye and I welcome 2012 with open arms.   I hope that this year will be another great year. I pray for happiness, good health, peace, great opportunities and never ending inspiration.  I know that there will be challenges along the way. I pray for strength and courage to rise above small and big hurdles that I might encounter.

Cheers to a great year ahead!

Happy New Year!

New Year is a wonderful time to celebrate life, good health, love and friendship. May you be blessed with all these things.

May the New Year usher in new hopes, new goals, exciting discoveries and more inspirations. I hope that 2011 will be a great year for you.

Take care and God bless.

Happy New Year!

It's a brand new year! I wish everyone a blissful and blessed New Year. May 2010 usher in many wonderful blessings for all of us.

I know that I have been an inactive blogger these past few months. I hope to pick up the pace this year. Thank you for taking time to visit despite my blogging lapse.

Happy New Year to all! God bless.

Weekend Snapshot #58

To join this weekly meme, click here.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Wishing everyone a prosperous Year of the Ox. May you have the best of health and good fortune. God bless.

Lunar New Year's Eve

I got this cute post card from my Chinese friend, Tina. This midnight, the world welcomes the Year of the Ox (my zodiac year), which "symbolizes strength gathers through unity, harmony, obedience, courage and hard slog."

We have round fruits to symbolize prosperity and tikoy (a chinese sticky rice delicacy, often served during Chinese new year) to strengthen family ties. Tikoy is served by slicing it to thin rectangles, dipping it in egg then frying it). This year we bought ube flavored tikoy. We also have some new good luck charms for the house.

Have a wonderful Year of the Ox!

3 Word Thursdays #10

meme rules:
*photo must have 3 words in it
*post your photo on your site with a link
back to Ma Vie Folle (or grab button)

Happy New Year to all!

(Photo taken at my MIL's place)

2008 Revisited

"Resolve to live each day by the Golden Rule and use this time of fresh beginnings for renewal and enlightenment."
~ from Alexandra Stoddard's Grace Notes~

The year 2008 has been a good one and now I welcome a brand new year. I hope that 2009 will bring many blessings and opportunities to everyone. Happy New Year!

Last year I posted 742 entries. I would like to share some of my favorite posts for each month of 2008.

January (72 posts)

• Don't be a Lurker (National De-Lurking Week)
• Video of Yohan's Christmas Dance

February (45 posts)

• Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

March (55 posts)

• Birthday Roses
• Easter Sunday
• Science Week
  

April (58 posts)

• My Silverlining
• A Weekend in Subic
  

May (93 posts)

• My Parent's 36th Wedding Anniversary
• Special Mother's Day

June (55 posts)

• 9 Blue Balloons and 3 Red Balloons
• Happy Father's Day
  

July (64 posts)

• Yohan Turns 5
• Cabbage Paper Mache
  

August (55 posts)

• Trip to the Beach
  

September (67 posts)

• Blood Donation Experience
• Butterfly's Journey Part 1
• Butterfly's Journey Part 2
• Philippine Blog Awards 2008
  

October (80 posts)

• Trick or Treat
• Family Portrait by Yohan
  

November (58 posts)

• Dog Emergency
  

December (40 posts)

• Christmas Decorating
• Christmas Message
• New Year Traditions

Our New Year Traditions

Before I start getting busy with our preparations, let me share some of my family's New Year traditions.

• Cleaning the house before New Year.
  
• Serving 13 fruits on the table table. Most of these fruits are round ones to symbolize prosperity.
• Putting a bowl of rice, sugar and salt on the table.
  
• Wearing red brings good luck.
• Eating 12 grapes at midnight. Each grape symbolizes a prosperous month of the year.
  
• Putting coins in the pocket to have a prosperous year ahead.
  
• Refraining from serving chicken because of the saying, "Isang kahig, isang tuka." They say a chicken's way of life somehow connotes struggles or tough times.
• Opening lights, windows and doors before midnight to welcome in good graces to your home.
• Scattering coins on the floor at midnight.
• Creating loud noises to drive away evil spirits and bad luck.
  

Would you like to share some of your traditions?

Happy New Year!

I want to wish everyone a festive and safe New Year's Eve celebration tonight. I'm sorry if I haven't been posting lately. I'm always out of the house. I'm taking advantage of the long Christmas break to meet friends and relatives. I'll share some photos soon.

Hope everyone will have a prosperous New Year. May you all receive wonderful blessings and best of health. God bless.

Thursday Thirteen : Kung Hei Fat Choi

Thirteen Things about THE YEAR OF THE RAT Sorry my TT is a day late. I was out yesterday with some friends. When I got home I was too tired to finish my post and decided to just post it today. Kung Hei Fat Choi (Happy Chinese Lunar New Year) to everyone! My husband and I have grown accustomed to celebrating Chinese New Year. Last Year we enjoyed celebrating the Year of the Pig. This year we didn't have time to prepare that much but we still made it a point to buy some fruits (symbols of prosperity) and tikoy (round sticky cake that symbolizes unity). Jules baked an apple pie (something sweet symbolizes harmonious relationship). On the eve of every Lunar Chinese New Year, my husband and I write our wishes on Wishing Paper and light some incense. After writing our wishes, we burn the Wishing Paper and pray that our wishes will come true. Here are some interesting things about the Year of the Rat that I read in various feng shui sites. 1.Year of the Earth Rat starts on February 7, 2008 and ends on January 25, 2009. 2. The Rat is the first sign of the Chinese zodiac and signifies new beginnings. 3. This year is thus an appropriate time to start new ventures, especially groundbreakings. 4. The Year of the Earth Rat is predicted to be an exciting year full of new beginnings and accomplishments as the elements of Earth and Water come together. 5. Prospects for businesses involving property development, real estate, jewelry, computers, restaurants and entertainment look good. 6. Chinese astrologers predict that the Year of the Rat is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product, or make a fresh start. 7. The Rat tends to take a lot of risks, while Earth is associated with practicality and stability. This creates balance and can lead to good profits, increased productivity and all sorts of accomplishments. 8. The Rat year can bring a new beginning of international relationships and social order. 9. The rat is also considered as a "Flower of r0mance." 10. It is a relatively good time to begin a new romance. 11. Those in a relationship may want to consider raising it to the next level, to include marriage. 12. The following are born on the "Year of the Rat:" 1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 13. Wishing everyone good tidings on the Year of the Rat. May all of you have good health, success in career and wealth of happiness in your hearts. God bless.

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Tagged :: New Year's Traditions

I was tagged by Hailey to do this meme.

What are some of your new year’s good luck traditions?

• We usually have 12-13 fruits on the table, particularly round fruits to symbolize prosperity.
• We also make loud noises at 12 midnight (New Year's Eve) to drive away bad luck and evil spirits.
• We put coins in our pockets and jingle them at midnight.
• We enjoy medya noche, a traditional family dinner on New Year's Eve.

Rule:
Copy the person and persons’ names that sent it to you and add your own at the bottom of the list. It really helps to build community.

Lets start it here!

*My mom used to collect some coins and when the new year comes she put the coins in a bowl and shake it to create sounds. She said its good luck for money throughout the year. And also wearing dotted dresses on new year don’t know why. CC/chalyza/keep

*My old folks always told us to avoid spending money on new years day. They said, once you spend on the first day of the year, you like to spend the rest of the year.
Behind d Scenes of ME/ Retchel’s Pure Life/
A little bit of me

*I grew up believing that if you have some money on your pocket (whatever you’re wearing) come New Year’s eve it will ensure steady flow of income throughout the year. The other belief is that the main door of the house should be wide open come New Year’s eve so that good luck will be ushered in. Juliana of MY WORLD and JULIANA’S LAIR.

* We always lit fireworks (Chinese belief) as part of tradition to scare off "bad spirits" and start the New Year with a blast. Hailey of Hailey's Beats and Bits

I won't be tagging anyone since New Year celebration is already finished. Hope everyone had a wonderful time.

Weekend Snapshot #10

I'm glad that my son is doing better today after being sick for three consecutive days. He has no fever since this morning and hopefully he will be completely well soon.

I'm sharing a picture of some fruits we have on our table. We believe that preparing fruits (usually 12 or 13) on New Year, especially the round ones will bring prosperity to the family. We have big oranges, miniature oranges, apples, grapes, grapefruit, kiwi, chico, melon, pears, papaya, mangoes, pineapple and bananas.

Thank you Note and New Year's Wish

Thank you very much to everyone's concern and to those who prayed for my son. My husband and I were very worried because of Yohan's persistent high fever and decided to bring him to the hospital yesterday for some tests. Unfortunately, his pediatrician is on holiday so we couldn't bring Yohan to his clinic for a check-up but we knew we could show the tests results to Jules' grandfather, a retired pediatrician.

The urinalysis didn't indicate UTI. Yohan's CBC results show that his platelets are within the normal range. However, his WBC went over the maximum. We were told at the hospital that it was probably due to some form of bacterial infection. After consulting with Jules' grandfather, we were advised to give Yohan antibiotics for seven days.

I'm glad to tell you that since this morning, Yohan is not suffering from fever anymore. I really hope and pray that the fever will not come back. I'm afraid we won't be able to join Jules' family for the annual New Year's party but I know they would understand that Yohan still needs to rest.

We'll be celebrating the coming of 2008 at home. As I wrote previously, we have no firecrackers but the village will be preparing a fireworks display that we can watch from our house.

It's just a few more hours before another year comes. Let me leave you with a New Year's Wish ...

May God's blessings come in abundance for you and your family on 2008. May all the kindness you've shown this year come back to you in a thousand folds this coming year. Wishing everyone a safe, happy and fun New Year celebration!

Aloha Friday #12

Note: My Thursday Thirteen for the week (13 Things I Got For Christmas) is at my other blog.

Rules: Post any question on your blog on a Friday, share your answer and sign Kailani's Mr. Linky. Then have fun answering the questions of fellow participants by visiting their blogs.

What are some of your New Year traditions?

Here are a few random New Year traditions that we practice in the family.

• When I was a young girl, my mom would always let me wear something with polka dots to symbolize good luck.
  
• We do a general cleaning of the house before New Year.
  
• There are always 13 fruits on the table, preferably round ones every New Year to symbolize prosperity.
• We put coins in our pockets on New Year, another symbol for prosperity.
• Last year, we started celebrating New Year firecracker-free.
  
• For a safe New Year celebration, we don't buy firecrackers anymore (not that anyone in the family had a bad experience or anything). Instead, we welcome the New Year making noises using trumpets and playing loud music.
  
• We watch the fireworks display at our village.
• Our family welcome the New Year by giving one another a kiss and a warm embrace.

Welcome 2007

Last year was not a good year for me. I experienced many difficult challenges along the way. I'm thankful that I was able to overcome those bumps on the road. As I face a brand new year, I'd like to be positive and hope that I'll have a smoother drive this time. I understand that I may still encounter some rough spots on the road, but I'm willing to take the journey with hope and determination.

Goodbye 2006. Welcome 2007!

Happy New Year To All!

It's a brand new year!

... may the new year bring all your heart's desires.

... may it deepen your love for your family, friends and yourselves.

... may it strengthen your beliefs, understanding, spirit and most especially your faith in God.

...may you have a clean and open heart to welcome all of God's plans for the days to come.

Happy New Year to all my friends. May 2007 bring you inspiration, hope and determination to reach your goals.

Our New Year's Eve Traditions

Every New Year's Eve, our family attends mass together to thank God for all the blessings he has bestowed on us for the year. We visit my in-laws who live just a few minutes away but we make sure that we are home before midnight. My family gathers for Media Noche or midnight meal. It symbolizes hope for a prosperous New Year.

A few minutes before the clock strikes twelve, we make sure that all the doors, windows and lights are open to invite good luck inside our home. Jules usually lights up some firecrackers to welcome the New Year and also to drive away bad spirits and bad luck. Everyone at home join in the merry noise making. My son and I contribute to the merrymaking by blowing cardboard trumphets and using toy drums. We also watch the fireworks display at the village clubhouse. Jules starts the car and honk its horns to symbolize a good working car for the rest of the year. Sometimes, we even get a full tank of gasoline for the car.

I remember when I was young, my parents would dress me in polka dot clothes because it symbolize wealth and prosperity. My brother and I were also encouraged to jump at the stroke of midnight so that we would grow tall.

Traditions that I have kept with me as I grew older are displaying fruits especially round fruits to symbolize wealth and eating twelve grapes at midnight for good luck in the twelve months of the year. We also put coins inside our pockets and jingle the coins at midnight for prosperity. I continue these traditions with my own family.

Have an exciting and wonderful New Year! Let's welcome 2007 with positive attitude.