Moving boxes, tables, life.

Freek, for a 3 bedroom townhouse, we sure have stuffed in a lot of stuff.

I thought we lived pretty simply, not buying too much stuff unneccesarily. But I guess there are just a lot of things we got that we thought we really need, but it turns out, we can really live without it.

A lot of things have been boxed up and moved out. About 8 boxes of things went to Vinnies or to the Typhoon victims in the Phils. Another 20-30 boxes or so and our dining table have been transferred to the "new place" over the last few days. So here at home now, we just have the basics: a 3 seater sofa, tv, rug, plastic cutlery, plates and cups, 2 pans, the fridge and it's minimal contents, the microwave, our beds, some toys and some clothes. Makes me realise how much I don't need too much at all to survive and be happy. I believe we're happy, even though were a tad sad to move out of here.

Christmas just came and it was lovely. We did get to do the usual Christmas gift shopping for family and K.K. (Kris Kringle) exchange gifts. This year, however, we didn't spend extra on "presents for ourselves", that usually ends up doubling the Christmas spending total. We celebrated Christmas Eve with my family, a crunchy fried feast of spring roll hors d'ourves, prawn wanton dumplings (c/o Costco) with the perfect roast ham and a chicken macaroni soup (called Sopas, in tagalog). We exchanged gifts at 9pm and we played Rapidoh with the kids until it was home time, which was 11.30pm (just in time for the kids to get to bed before Santa came:-). Our 3 year old doesn't know how Santa "works" just yet. He doesn't know about asking for presents, leaving out milk and cookies for the reindeers, or anything like that. I think he will be next Christmas though and I think it'll be cute. But I hope he will also understand that Christmas isn't all about Santa and presents.

Christmas Day was spent feasting again. We had lunch with the big extended fam and then dinner with Frankie's fam. We played Taboo until midnight and my team won! Board games can be so much fun.:)

It was a very simple Christmas, but I can say that it has been one of the funnest....hands down.
Fran and I were wondering if it had anything to do with us being pretty broke. In other years, I think with extra money, came the extra want to be at the shops or restaurants spending it all instead of really relishing the time with loved ones. Or maybe the fun in the previous years could've been dampened by the guilt of spending too much on ourselves. I can't know for sure. But being broke did NOT make Christmas a "downer" this year, that's for sure.

I haven't as yet got any responses from any of the jobs I have applied for. I'm hoping it's because recruitment pretty much stops in December. Looking forward to continuing the job search next year! On the other hand it has been AWESOME not to have to work during this Christmas holiday time and to top it off, the hubby is also on forced leave until early Jan 2012. Woot woot.. it means I don't get left with the job of "moving" all on my own. Oh and of course it means more time together and with the lil man. hehe.

Anyway, hope you all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.. and God bless you in the New Year!