Tinaciouslee

It’s that time of the year when I round up all the wonderful, wonderful events of the year past and cram ‘em into a single post.

I feel like 2025 came at a sluggish pace, completely different from the previous year. Do you feel the same?

So last year, I began my yearly review with a prediction of my Chinese zodiac, so I thought about doing the same this year.

Don’t laugh, man. I’m this desperate.

Okay, so the year of our lord, Fire Horse 2026, leans more into the lucky side, still slightly neutral but perhaps better luck than 2025. That’s always a good thing!

According to the prediction, I’ll need to be flexible, disciplined, and get this, emotionally balanced, to overcome challenges. Relationships will be testy, I’ll still struggle with overspending (which is, let’s be real, always the case, hahahaha), and for some reason, the universe is warning me about my damn kidneys.

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Alrighty, on with the review!

As a yearly tradition, the hubs and I headed to the city in January to celebrate an old friend’s birthday. It was great catching up with the old gang, as always. Going to the city is also an awesome opportunity to have some time for myself, explore the malls (lol), and see what I’ve been missing.

January and February are always pretty slow and not memorable at all so most of my activities were focused on the kids, the business, etc. During this time, I’m also meeting with other groups of friends, like my coffee girls below.

By March and April, things pick up again because we always celebrate a joint birthday celebration with the hubs. His birthday and mine are only a week apart, so we tend to celebrate the week after my birthday.

But first, I spent my actual birthday on “Dinosaur Island” in Clark with the fam. Damy loved it, Rocky was terrified of the dinosaurs, which was ironic considering how he loves watching dinosaur videos and playing with dino toys.

For our 2025 joint birthday celebration, we went to the beach! This was a pretty exciting trip because it was the first time the children went to the sea. As predicted, the kids were out of their mind with excitement, hahaha!

Damy, in particular, loved the waters. Rocky, who was the most excited about the trip, was the one who feared the water, ironically. We enjoyed the experience so much, we promised to go back to the same resort for this year’s celebration. We’ll see!

By May, things get quiet and I was spending most of my time working and taking care of our household. By June, the school starts, something that my kids aren’t too excited for, surprising because one is still in preschool, hahaha!

Now jumping to August, my second was chosen to represent their class for a “Linggo ng Wika” program/pageant of sorts, and he won first place, no biggie.

A week after, Rocky celebrated his birthday in his classroom. Here he is grinning ear to ear because he was super looking forward to the food and the toys, hahaha!

Around the same week, we travelled to the city to continue with Rocky’s birthday celebration. We booked a condo apartment on Airbnb that’s closest to the mall, so it’s more convenient when taking the kids out for some fun while also allowing me to meet my friends late at night.

As dumb as I was in my 20s, I miss those years spent with these guys!

Also, here’s Rocky asking to have his picture taken with a giant LEGO build lol he LOVES Lego at this age.

We went back to the city a couple of times more in October to have a bit of fun with friends. I’ve also met with my besties in HS from time to time, something I look forward to because we’ve been friends for decades. No pictures, too bad!

Then, sometime in November, my sister and cousin-in-law traveled to our humble abode to visit the kids and explore this sleepy town.

Here are the kids being treated to burgers and drinks by their aunts, hahaha! This burger stall is literally steps away from our house, and yet, it’s the first time we’ve gone there. It was fun!

December is always filled with a flurry of activities for us. There are school events, party planning for the fitness gym, preparing for Damy’s 7th birthday, Noche Buena planning, and our year-end trip to the city for the NYE fireworks.

Damien and his classmates + Rocky

As always, we opted to celebrate Damy’s birthday with a simple celebration in school, and then we treated our little guy to a nice dinner.

The hubs hosted the show

One of the first events we’ve prepared for is the gym’s holiday Thanksgiving party. I was there with my coffee girls and Bbois!

Also, can I just say, my makeup was so nice, hahaha! It pictured so well too.

I also spent a mini Christmas get-together with my coffee girls. We exchanged gifts, and it was so fun to catch up with my ladies before the holiday season starts.

SO! Here are the boys after waking them up to open their presents on Christmas Eve.

Damy did NOT get one wink of sleep because he was too excited about the presents. This kid.

Between the kids’ bedtime and Christmas Eve, I managed to cook two seafood dishes for Noche Buena: garlic butter prawns and baked salmon.

The rest of the dishes we ordered at a popular Chinese resto, originally based in Binondo Chinatown. Everything was fabulous!

We ended the year with a trip to the city to see the fireworks and do bits of shopping. The kids have grown quite a bit and are more independent now, so preps were very manageable despite the lack of a yaya.

They got the stomach bug before the trip, so the trip had its stresses. But the important thing is, the children had fun!

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So to sum up, 2025 was a year full of get-togethers with friends, working in the household, and getting things done. The Japan trip didn’t push through, sadly.

But I was able to save quite a bit; like I promised myself at the start of the year. My goal is to continue saving and doing bits of promotion for my gem biz.

As far as remote work is concerned, the job market has been bleak, and it’s been frustrating. I don’t want to get into detail because most of these are in the negative, but hot damn, I miss 2016.

I miss the days when people got jobs because they were genuinely skilled at them and worked hard to earn their credentials, not because they could fake it with AI. I miss the days when employers put more value on the right people for the job, those who are willing to grow with the business and not treat employees like used tissues.

I’d like to finish this post on a positive note. I’m still hopeful that things will be better this 2026. I hope you’ve enjoyed the holiday festivities and you’re getting love and light this season!

Cheers!