Our Very First Christmas Tree

This Christmas would be our first Christmas together as a married couple. We got married last year a day after Christmas, on boxing day, so our first home was empty when we moved in. We just enjoyed our neighbor's colorful, dancing Christmas lights in the evenings.

We thought we were going to spend Christmas at our first home, but things changed and we moved last month! After settling in our new home I started scouting for a Christmas tree.

I fell in love with a 7-foot tree at National Bookstore. It was big and fat, but EXPENSIVE! I was not keen on spending so much on Christmas decors. So I put my shopping skills to work and eventually found a similar tree, less 70% of the cost at Uniwide in Sucat.

I wasn't able to save any of my Christmas decors (they perished during typhoon Ondoy), so I just got stuff from Divisoria, Dapitan Arcade, SM Department Store, Uniwide and to make it personalized I made Christmas frames and placed our photos in it (I'll blog about it soon). I got the tree skirt at Uniwide at PhP200. We spent a small fortune on the lights though since we got it at Ace Hardware.

Total cost for the tree and trimmings is less than PhP3,500. I decided not to place the silver boa thingy anymore (what do you call those things anyway?).

Shopping: the Pergola Mall and Robinson's Supermarket

A few weeks ago we were invited to check out what Robinson's had in store at the Pergola Mall in BF Homes, Paranaque.

We've only been to the Pergola Mall a few times and we usually go there just to get some take out from Kopi Roti, so spending some time in the mall was a treat. The shops at the ground level of the mall consisted of restaurants/coffee shops, pasalubong/dessert carts, a pet shop, book shop, CDR King and, of course, Robinson's Supermarket.

It was our first time to go around the second level of the Pergola Mall. We found a smattering of food carts and a huge dining area where you can hang out and use their free wifi.  

I'm pretty sure my friend Juned would light up when he sees that there is a lechon place!

The Robinson's outlet store -- they change inventory every month -- was awesome! When we went there last month they were selling toys at discounted prices. We ended up doing some early Christmas shopping. Around the corner there's also an area where they sell bags at really cheap prices. Last weekend the inventory at the outlet store were mostly Christmas decors and home stuff.

If you have kids, you can leave them at the play area so you can shop in peace.

Around the corner is Handy Man -- they sure have the store packed with all sorts of stuff you need for your home. 

We've gone back several times since our first visit and we always end up buying stuff for our home. 

Pergola Mall (map)

BF Homes, Paranaque

*Photos by Jay

The Best Roach Killer

I am very allergic to cock roaches. Just a whiff of it can bring me down with an asthma attack. Our first home had a lot of roaches when we moved in and we tried to get rid of them by spraying every night. Problem was, I was allergic to the spray as well (even water based ones).

I discovered Baygon's 24-hour tablet roach killer at SM Hypermarket. It's a bit pricey at PhP159, but I got one box in the hopes of getting rid of the roaches at home and to save me the pain from having asthma attacks. 

I'm glad I made the investment since all the roaches were gone in two weeks and we were roach free for a whole quarter. That's just about PhP50+ per month. We replaced the tablets a week before it would reach 90 days.

Based on the product description what it does is attract roaches to the tablet. Once inside the poison sticks on their body and they bring this back to their colony, thereby killing all roaches in the vicinity of your home. And it works! Aside from homes I strongly suggest public places like offices, restos and stores to place this tablet around because it would definitely get rid of those roaches.

Baking Meat and Fish

When we moved to a new home I was happy to find out that my new electric over had a proper place. I wasn't able to bake that much in our old home because I was afraid that something bad might happen since the oven was set on top of a wooden buffet table. The table would feel really warm whenever I baked and I couldn't find any heat resistant pads anywhere.

I lost no time and tried to impress the boys by baking dinner two nights in a row. The first night I tried my hand at baking some porkchop. I was quite confident since I had on hand "Hunt's Hickory and Honey Barbecue Sauce". It turned out pretty okay, but I forgot to place salt and pepper! Haha.

I actually wanted to grill the tuna belly, but Sweetie refused to bring out the grill (coz he has to clean it up after I cook), so I ended up baking the tuna belly. It was online cooking mentors from Plurk who taught me what to mix as marinade - soy sauce, garlic, calamansi, salt and pepper and I added some kecap manis to sweeten it up a bit.

Here's how it looked after we baked it. It was gone in a jiffy after I served it! Haha.

Second attempt on baking porkchop tonight. Already placed salt and pepper on the meat and will add the sauce before I bake it.

Making this post made me hungry!