High school friends to sisters for life

Josi, one of my close friends from high school, came to Saipan from Hawaii to attend her sister's wedding. She, along with her entire family, came home for the wedding and the holidays. And even with the crazy business of the holidays, her and her husband, Barnaby, spared a couple hours to spend with us and just catch up.

My friends and I are truly different blends and that's what I love about them! I think our different personalities balances the entire group out.

Our first group shot with our men.

Taken at Sabina and Ton's wedding.

Cookies and more cookies!

Every year I try to make an original cookie and give it an original name. Unfortunately, the cookies I had planned on making didn't turn out right so I had to go with plan B as time was of the essence. So my plan B cookies is something simple, sweet and good. I ended up making the famous holiday cookies: sugar cookies, and from scratch, too! I just added a bit of cookie decor to go with the festive mood. Last year, I made a White Christmas Cookie and it was awesome!

I've baked 65 cookies in 3 hours today. Why so long? Well, I actually don't have an oven so I use a toaster oven to make my cookies. Lucky for me, my new toaster oven is a bit bigger than the one I use to own, so it allows me to make a total of 9 cookies every 10-15 minutes. I know, that's a lot of work, but at the end it gets the job done.

I'm making these cookies for our annual Cookie Exchange, which is scheduled this Sunday, December 13th. This tradition started not too long ago and actually, this year is going to mark our 5th year of carrying this tradition! I can't wait to see what everyone else baked up.

Got a quarter?

The CNMI's very own state quarter's were released today. It's a historical day for the CNMI! Floyd is an avid coin collector and he was probably the first in line at the American Memorial Park today (although he won't admit it) to see the unveiling of the quarter. I wasn't there, but he said that there were even students from the public school system there to witness such a historical moment.

A very interesting fact to note about our quarter is that only 72,800,000 CNMI quarters were minted. This is the lowest amount of quarters minted for the U.S. Territories, which means our quarter is rare and at a potentially highly collectable.

If you haven't got your share, check out the local banks around your area (on or off-island).

Photos and more photos!

I know I've been so behind with my blog postings and all, but I still wanted to share some pictures that I took during our family's Thanksgiving dinner.

We had fried turkey this year!

Francis, DJ & Devin

My girl, Mya...isn't she cute???

The kiddos: Ross, Jaden & Jakey.

Jakey was pointing at Mya because she ran away

just when I was about to take a shot of them.

The Villamor family: Jerson, Lonessa & Bon

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Last week, PIC had their annual Employee Party. Our theme was "Festival of Cultures" and everyone had an awesome time, including myself. It was my first party with all the staff and everyone enjoyed themselves. Pictured below is a group shot of the HR crew that pulled this whole party together. It was all a lot of work, but it was all worth it in the end!

L-R: Evan, ME, Kamee & Angela

Christmas music

I was driving to work this morning and the song, Oh Holy Night came on the radio. I couldn't help but turn up the volume and sang along. I don't know what it is about the slow Christmas songs, but every time I sing them, it brings tears to my eyes. Maybe it's the tempo of the song, but it somehow brings me to my sad emotion. Of course the fun songs are like Jingle Bells or Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. Now those are the songs I'll dance to without an ounce of blues in my heart.


What's your favorite Christmas song and why? I would love to hear your memories.

Wow, it's been a while!

So much has happened in my life in the past couple of months. But I'll spare the details and do it in bullet point:

• I landed an awesome job at the Pacific Islands Club in September.
• My brother DJ turned 14 on October 17th. My baby brother, Devin turned 12 on October 28th.
• I watched my first Dodge ball game at PIC. It rocked!!! I think I'll actually play on a team next year.
  
• Thanksgiving was definitely sad without my dad and Uncle Lo at Thanksgiving dinner this year. Our Thanksgiving started out emotional and sad, but ended happy and filling (literally!).
• Floyd & I watched New Moon together...it was alright. The crowd in the theater made the movie more entertaining! LOL!
  
• My brother Ton turned 28 on November 28th

I promise to be more on top of my game with my blog! I can't believe how badly I've ignored my blog.