One of the things that Filipino "corporate slaves," a.k.a. the employed individuals, anticipate at the start of the is the schedule of official holidays. Yep, we work our butts off for these holidays - the long weekends, most especially.

Knowing what day the holidays will fall on allows us to plan and schedule our leaves and day offs so we can make the most of those holiday long weekends and make them longer.

So get your calendars and leave forms ready, my dear fellow corporate slaves, and refer to this partial list of non-working holidays, resulting to long weekends, from The Official Website of the Republic of the Philippines for whatever purpose it may serve you.

JANUARY - It WAS a LONG WEEKEND indeed!!!
Tue 01 January - New Year's Day

FEBRUARY
Monday 25 February - EDSA Revolution Anniversary (Somebody commented that GMA loves to GMA loves to piss off the Aquinos these days so we shouldn't be surprised if this won't be declared as a non-working holiday. Hey, don't shoot the messenger, the rumor didn't come from me.)

MARCH - To the unholies like me, book your trip to the beaches! I, on the other hand, will be staying at home waiting for Baby Frost #2 to come out.
March 20 Maundy Thursday
March 21 Good Friday
March 22 Black Saturday
March 23 Easter Sunday

APRIL
Monday 07 April - Araw ng Kagitingan (in lieu of Wed 09 Apr)

MAY
Monday 05 May - Labor Day (in lieu of Thu 01 May)

JUNE
Monday 16 June - Independence Day (in lieu of Thu 12 Jun)

Nothing for July. It's my birthday month! Why didn't anyone important choose to be born or die during this month?!?!?! Just kidding.

AUGUST
Monday 25 August - Ninoy Aquino Day (in lieu of Thu 21 Aug & concurrent with National Heroes Day.)

Nothing for September either, except if you're still in school, there's Mama Mary's birthday on the 8th, that falls on a MOnday.

OCTOBER
Monday 13 October - Eid'l Fitr (Hooray for our Muslim brothers!)

NOVEMBER
Saturday 01 November - All Saints' Day falls on a Saturday. Let us all join hands and pray that Friday, October 31 will be declared as a non-working day.

DECEMBER
Monday 01 December - Bonifacio Day (in lieu of Sun 30 Nov)

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

Presenting, the mother of all holidays, the Adam and Eve of long weekends, we're giving a new meaning to the 12 days of Christmas with this 12-day long weekend!

1. Wednesday 24 December - Official Last-Minute Shopping Holiday, somebody said.
2. Thursday 25 December - Christmas Day
3. Friday 26 December - One of your leaves must be saved for this. Not many Filipinos go to work when a Friday is sandwiched between (do you really think Pinoys will go to work on this day???!!!)
4. Saturday 27 December
5. Sunday 28 December
6. Monday 29 December - Rizal Day (in lieu of December 30)
7. Tuesday 30 December - (refer to No. 3 above)
8. Wednesday 31 December - Last Day of the Year Holiday (declared by GMA)
9. Thursday 01 January - New Year's Day...
10. Friday 02 January - (again, refer to Nos. 3 and 7 above. Seriously, do you think anyone would intend to work on this day??!)
11. Saturday 03 January
12. Sunday 04 January

Labels: holidays, vacation

Let's continue doing holidays postmortem, shall we?

The holidays season give a lot of opportunities to many people to make more money. And among those who take advantage of these opportunities are filmmakers. Notice how many Christmas-themed or family-oriented movies are released come December of every year? It's because they capitalize on the worldwide belief that Christmas is a time for family, thus, should be spent with them. And what better way to bring everyone in the family together but watch movies?

Somebody made a list of Top 20 Christmas movies of all time. I agree with most of the items listed there. The Home Alone series, at least the ones that starred Macaulay Culkin, are perfect Christmas movies. They are entertaining enough for every member of the family, including teenagers who tend to frown upon what they call "childish" movies.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) is another entry that would make a Christmas movie marathon complete. Many people are jaded by Christmas because some have commercialized a bit to much what should be a spiritual celebration. This movie, though not spiritually inclined, may help the disenchanted ones to find other reasons to celebrate Christmas.

Love Actually (2003) is drawn more for grownups, but the collaboration of different Christmas stories in one film is just superb. Having my favorite Bill Nighy is a definite bonus for me.

It's a pretty much informative and helpful list, but if I were to make my own, I would definitely include The Santa Clause (1994), The Simpsons Christmas Special (1989), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), and A Christmas Story (1983).

What would be on your list?

Labels: about me, christmas, holidays, sideline

Note: Long post with pics.

And now I've posted batch 2 of our holiday pics, the New year celebration. Check them all out in this album. I've uploaded videos as well, and you can find them here.

Read on for the lowdown on our celebration with Mr. Frost's side of the family.

Brief Notes:
December 26, 2007, Wednesday - Jewel gave birth to VALERA YZABEL MORALES-JOVEN at around 7AM, making Ping, her husband, a very proud father. (The JOVENs)

December 27, Thursday - Ate Jenny, their eldest, arrived at Manila in the afternoon all the way from Laoag City, Ilocos Norte with her husband, Kuya Franz, and kids, Jem and Cheska. (The FELIPEs)

December 28, Friday - Jewel was discharged from the hospital and they brought baby Yza home.

Ping picked us up at Fort Bonifacio in the afternoon. We loaded up and went on a long drive to the far end of Quezon City. We had to stop over at the University of the Philippines (UP) campus, though, because we had some engine trouble. After about an hour, we went on and arrived at their house a little past 5PM.

I let Issen rest for a bit, then I gave him a quick bath. After that, Mr. Frost and I went to SM Fairview with the Felipes for some last minute shopping. Mr. Frost and I have been wanting to buy Issen a small chair and we did buy one at Toy Kingdom. Here it is being used by the tyke when we got home. I chose this one because of its bright color and because it has a picture of a cow, one of Issen's favorite animals these days, at the back rest.

Reading with his Ate Cheska, sitting on his new TV seat

Anyway, he's at a stage when his stranger anxiety is at its peak, but surprisingly, he warmed up very easily to his Ate Cheska. The sweet little girl read to him while he was on his new chair and voila! Instant best friend! Look at him so comfy while Cheska was reading to him. All throughout our stay there, Issen was giving Cheska hugs that he usually reserve for people he likes very much.

The next day, we were supposed to go with the Felipes to the Global Fun Carnival and the Science Expo at the SM Mall of Asia. However, I wasn't feeling well so we just stayed home. I took a couple of pics of baby Yza, and here's our pretty baby girl.


Next morning, Sunday, Kuya Jem greeted Issen "good morning" with his Christmas gift: a classic Thomas and Friends train set. Jem got it as a gift 12 years ago, when he was just a year old himself. Amazing how he (and his parents) took care of that toy for 12 long years! And because of that amazement, I was not able to take a picture of the assembled set. But I did something better: took a video of Issen and the moving train! Click here to see the short video. And here's a pic that Mr. Frost took of Issen's amused face while watching the train move.

Reaching for the train

Monday, we prepared for that night's celebration. My body still felt like lead and I can't move around much. Anyway, we heard mass at around 7PM then we pretty much waited for 12 midnight. I was able to take a picture of Issen fooling around with his Dada at the gate. Look at that precious smile.

Behind bars and happy about it. Should we start worrying? Or saving for bail money?

Unfortunately, Issen fell asleep at around 930PM. He woke up a few minutes before we start opening gifts, but that meant we have a cranky little monster with us. He won't go with anyone else but me, and you can imagine how hard it was for me considering the other load I have to carry inside my body.

Anyway, here are pics of Mr. Frost and his sisters with their respective families.

The Felipes: Tito Franz, Tita Jenny, Kuya Jem, and (in front) Ate Cheska

The Jovens: Tito Ping, Tita Jewel, and Baby Yza

The Frosts: See the cranky little boy?

And here's the whole lot. Nope, no chance of Issen smiling in this one.

Our growing family

We then moved on to the opening of the gifts. Issen was still cranky, but he calmed down bit by bit while we were opening his presents. He finally got his good mood when he saw his new musical hippo toy. Check out in this video how he went around chasing after the toy.

"I own you, Hippo."

We got that gift from the N@W Christmas party, but we opened it just now because we wanted all toy gifts (I kinda figured it was a toy) will be opened during our stay here.

At 11PM, Issen was ready to go back to sleep, so we cleaned him and put on his jammies. His Dada sat beside him as they watch his Sesame Street videos while I get a decent meal. A few minutes before midnight, Issen was fast asleep.

Look at Dada so proud to have put Issen to sleep.

We transferred him to the bedroom and watched the fireworks outside. I kept on going inside to check on him and fortunately, Issen was not awakened by the noise that the midnight firecrackers brought.

We just had several "kwitis" that the kids enjoyed lighting up with Jessa, Issen's sitter. We also had an improvised bamboo cannon that Ping made. Here's a video of how the cannon worked. Other than that, we contented ourselves watching the neighbors' fountains and other types of fireworks and firecrackers. It's a kinda nice feeling being entertained by expensive fireworks and firecrackers and knowing you didn't spend a cent on them.

That pretty much summed up our New Year celebration with Mr. Frost's sisters. It may not be much, but for us, those four days meant a lot. They only have the three of them left for a family, and it brings us great joy that we can all be together at least this time of the year.

More pics in this album, in case you wanna see more.

Labels: family, frosts, holidays