January 03, 2023
New year is a time to celebrate life, a time to thank God for His unending love to us, a time for gathering, a time for reunion, a time to enjoy and have fun with family, friends and relatives.
This new year, it is our schedule to celebrate it with my parents, I mean with my mother together with my siblings. I and my husband decided to visit our parents every new year. This year we visited my mother and next year, by God's grace we will visit his parents.
We went home Saturday evening because we still spend the Sabbath in the church and we welcome the new year praising God for His goodness.
Preparation
When we reached home, everyone is busy and we lend a helping hand where or what we could help. Some were cooking, some were making a simple decoration and some were preparing for the games.
My husband cooked the chicken soup with papaya, my second brother cooked chicken adobo and fried chicken, my future sister in law (my brothers girlfriend) cooked the spaghetti while me and our youngest prepared the macaroni salad.
My another brother is also busy preparing for the decoration. All of us took part in the preparation.
When everyone is in unity, task will be accomplished easily.
Some of our relatives (two sisters of my mother and their family) visited home and celebrate the new year with us. They were our visitor that night.
Food
We offer a prayer of thanksgiving before we partake the food we prepare.
We have rice (this is something that every Pinoy should have), tinolang manok (chicken soup with papaya), chicken adobo, fried chicken, macaroni salad, spaghetti, mango float, cake, soft drinks and pineapple juice as an healthy alternative.
All of us loves macaroni salad. We can have this usually once a year which is during new year celebration. While eating, we were able to reminisce the past where we can't still afford to prepare this food. Our mother used to call it a food that has two holes. She didn't know it's name before but she really loves it. During those times we were so happy when our neighbor will give some macaroni to us and our mother will divide it equally so all of us can try to eat it.
We are so grateful to God for giving us a blessing especially to my brothers who are a sponsors for our food and prizes for games this new year's celebration.
Small or big, few or many, we should be grateful unto the Lord who is the source of everything.
Games
One of my younger brother initiated the games. He prepared different games for us to enjoy and I even almost lost my voice because of too much laughing and shouting, lol.
First game is the calamansi relay. We put calamansi in the spoon and we put the spoon in our mouth. We will carry the calamansi through the spoon and turn in the chair in front and go back and relay it to the next player until everyone will be finished. We lost in this game, lol.
In the second game we used flour. We get a flour in the plate using a spoon being put in our mouth and put in the glass in front. The groups that can fill the cup full will win. We won this game, yey!
In the third game we used balloons. First and second player will go toward the line without holding the balloon but only the back of the first player and the stomach of the next player will hold the balloon and followed by the others until everyone is finished. My team won this game, yey!
We also play Bible trivia which is the player is individual. My brother had a lot of Bible trivia that made our mind think a lot. Our mother won a lot this game and she won a lot of chocolates.
Prizes in games doesn't matter, what matter is that everyone participated and enjoys a lot.
I'm sorry, there is no pictures during the games because I am one of the players. Only the girlfriend of my brother took a video in the games.
Pictorial
We decided to wear a uniform for our new year pictures. So, before new year we bought a free size jogger that can be fit to everyone except kids.
My brother suggests that we should wear it at night but I told him to better wear it and have some pictures in the morning as pictures is better in day than night.
We only use one cellphone (phone of my future sister in law) in all picture taking because she had a good camera. She then sends it to our group chat so we can grab and see our pictures.
But before looking at our family pictures this year, here a glimpse of our family picture two year ago. We're not complete in this picture as one of our brother is in Manila.
Picture taken last January 01, 2021
This is our family picture for January 01, 2023. We're still incomplete as one of our brother is still in Manila plus our father cannot be with us anymore. This is the first new year without the presence of our father. The celebration seems incomplete but we have to move on and just remember the memories that we have with him.
Here is my lovely family, my mother, my one sister and three brothers. I have four younger brothers but the other one is not with us because he is in Manila.
Here is my own family, my husband and our son.
Here is my younger sister's family with her husband and three kids.
Here is the women in the family including our grandmother and the grandmother of the girlfriend of my brother.
Here is the men in the family.
Here is my mother with her mother. Our grandmother is now blind and my mother decided to take care of her.
It was a great day as we really had fun through the games. We also enjoy the food together that we cannot even eat them all and it last even yesterday and I don't know if there are still remains today.
It was also a quality time with our family. It is so seldom that we met altogether because I have my own family, my brothers are staying in another barangay because they are working and studying. So, we cherish the moment and this will be remembered.
That is how we spent the first day of the year as we celebrated the new year with our family.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE😃 May we be blessed abundantly this year.
