Life Lately | Wander with Mi

Hello Guys! It’s been a while since my last post and I’ve missed all of you. I hope that everyone is doing well.

Welcome 2017: Start the New Year Right

2017 is just around the corner, are you excited? Before we bid goodbye to 2016, let us first go back and reminisce the laughters, joys, tears, sadness and all the rollercoaster of emotions that this year gave us. Cherish all our new discoveries, accomplishments and life improvements. Remind ourselves of the lessons learned and let go of all the negativities, in order to start fresh. Some of you may already have drafted their resolutions for next year. Like you, I also created a list which I don’t want to call a resolution, instead I would like to call it the way of life I wanted to adopt this coming year. In order to easily remember it, I used the word NEW YEAR. 

Christmas Away from Home

Do you know which country celebrates the longest Christmas? Well, it happens to be on the country where I came from and consider home, the Philippines. As early as September, people are already preparing and Christmas songs can be heard playing in most houses and establishments. By the time December arrives, houses are already decorated with beautiful, colorful and brightly lighted Christmas trees, Belens and Parols. Cheerful and wonderful voices of kids (even if they they are out of tunes or inventing the lyrics of songs.. hahaha! guilty of this) singing Christmas carols can be heard from every side of the streets. Vendors selling puto bumbong and bibingka (both are steamed rice cake) can be found everywhere. Filipinos are busy with Christmas parties, family reunions, exchange gifts, charity works and the list goes on. Catholics attend to their traditional 9 days of simbang gabi (night mass) in preparation for the birth of Jesus. On the eve of Christmas, the festive Noche Buena is being served after attending the midnight mass. And then on the most awaited day, Christmas, everyone are just so jolly and merry, sharing and giving their beautiful smiles and warm love. Children are visiting their ninongs and ninangs (godparents) asking for gifts and aguinaldos (money inside a red envelope). The aura and spirit of Christmas can be felt until the 1st week of January which is the Feast of the 3 Kings.

This is the picture of Christmas that I am always looking forward when I was still living in the Philippines.  It was in 2012 when I first arrived here in Doha, Qatar to be with my husband and it has been five years since I’ve been celebrating this season away from home. Here in Doha, Christmas is not considered a festive and religious holiday. Well, I understand and respect that because they’ve got their own beliefs and traditions. But despite of that, Christmas can still be celebrated the way you want it. So, here’s a short video of how we celebrated our 5th Christmas away from home.

Click on this link to watch the video: Christmas in Doha 2016

Thank you for watching. Wishing everyone Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The First Blog

Welcome to my blog guys!!! I’ve been wanting to start this since like years ago, but due to my lethargic behavior, didn’t really have the drive to pursue it. I just can’t contain my happiness right now that I finally did it after persistently researching and asking questions (see I’ve changed. Hahaha). Well, today is my birthday, actually the reason why I made my first blog, since I wanted it to be something remarkable. I don’t have any intention of revealing my age, but since I’m a believer of “age is just a number” thing, then might as well prove it, just turned 30+ but still looks and feels like 25 (I’m right, these are really just numbers! Hahaha!).