Hopes and Resolutions

Two nights ago, Filipinos welcomed the new year with our tradition of family gathering around the table for the media noche after the midnight mass, and superstitions like putting 24 kinds of round fruits on the table for prosperity, filling a glass with salt up to the brim and another glass with cotton, putting pineapple on the dinner table, wearing polka-dotted clothes, jingling coins in one's pockets when the clock strikes 12:00, making noise to drive the bad luck away, or jumping high (for the kids) when the clock strikes 12:00.

Everyone is looking forward to a great year.  Here's a list of things that would make my year really great.  I have listed them in no particular order since many of them are as important to me as the others.

 1. good health and the safety of myself, my family and everyone I love
 2. less stress, fewer deadlines
 3. my son's emotional healing
 4. financial comfort
 5. weaker typhoons
 6. less floods
 7. no natural disasters
 8.world peace
 9. a baby girl of our own flesh and blood
10. happiness of my loved ones
11. Ruel's personal fulfillment
12. job satisfaction
13. more real friends for my son
14. money to buy a house
15. new television set
16. more time with my loved ones
17. more time to do the things I want to do
18. inner peace
19. a just and peaceful resolution of the Scarborough Shoal conflict
20. a new DLSR camera
21. travel
22. more blog readers
23. puppies

And now, I would like to share with you all my resolutions for the year.  Listing them down like this would hopefully make me more responsible in keeping them.

1. spend more time bonding with my son
2. enjoy a sport with my son and Ruel
3. be more affectionate towards my parents
4. be more organized
5. learn new recipes
6. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE
7. bake more
8. manage my time better
9. bond with my new nephew
10. complain less, appreciate more
11. meet deadlines - boy, this is hard!
12. spend quality time with my dogs
13. read more
14. watch more movies
15. find a balance between work and my personal life
16. eat healthier
17. make healthy meals for my family
18. get even more closer to God
19. love more
20. less impulse purchases

I think that's about it. I trust in God's goodness that He would give me what I want for this year, and that He would help me do the things I have resolved to do.

I took this after the midnight mass on New Year's Eve.

May the joy that only the Christ Child can bring stay with us all throughout this year.  A safe, prosperous and happy 2013 everyone!  God bless us all! Cheers!