The Concrete Girl, sweet as she is, awarded me the following:

In turn I would like to pass this Awesome Blogger award to:
Svelte’s Passion - it’s a sports blog, and I’m not that much into sports (OK, so not at all ) but I am awed by Lara’s passion for sports and it comes through in her writing.

Ate Sienna – not only does she make me laugh everytime I visit her blog, she is also a great friend and an awesome theme designer. Make sure you visit her Manilena.com site for free templates.

My Life…A Cup of Deja Brew – Jet has been on a writing hiatus and because of her busy career may be taking another break again; but when this lady is on, she is ON. Her blogging is poetry. If blogs could sing, hers is rockin’!

Y’all on my blogrolls know I love y’all. So to all my mommy blogger friends, filipino blogger friends and blogging berks, this one is for you:

Francesca – her stories are always interesting and funny

Leah, CheH, Tin, Mec and Meeya – Young moms who have the cutest kids. OK, y’all have cute kids, but they visit me all the time

Joan – my neighbor here in N.C. and an awesome photographer

And as I notice that I’ve only been awarding my girlfriends again, let me also give special mention to my boyfriends:
Nick – who is always up to something interesting
Rolly – who is an artist both on canvas and online
Jay - you don’t have to be Filipino to realize this guy is funny. He’s just hillarious if you are

Happy New Year, y’all!!

Well, we’re back. We started out the year on the beach, how great is that!

However, that time in the sun was short lived. We are now back in the midst of winter in North Carolina, not that it’s all bad or anything.

This was taken last Jan 18 (ignore the time stamp, I forgot to reset the camera), of our backyard. Our first snow of the season.As much fun as we had over the holidays, we are glad to be back home and being in our own space again.

Aside from seeing the hubby, hot running water, and sleeping in our own beds again, it sure was nice to come home to this:

Although due to plain ole laziness I have gotten out of the habit of sending out Christmas cards, it was still nice to come home to a box full of well wishes. This group of cards was especially nice because I haven’t met many of the senders yet I feel like they are all old friends. They are all from blogging friends from all over the world. You know who you generous people are, thank you very much.

The email inbox was also equally full of well wishes, thank you all who graciously sent greetings and even shared family photos. I really enjoyed seeing your beautiful faces.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what that tidbits book is doing in the mix, well, it really was in the mix of mail I opened when we returned from vacation. It’s my FREE copy of The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain courtesy of Amstel Light. What a treat to come home to, eh?

I’ve acutally been home for over two weeks now, and I am just getting around to posting something so bear with me. I’ll have lots of vacation photos to share soon.

The new blogger is messing with my Our Kitchen blog, so I also have to see if I can get that straightened out. If you’ve left a comment for me in the kitchen, I’m sorry to say that it is probably lost in bloggerland. The blog hasn’t been taking any comments. Oh well.

On a higher note, while we were gone, we were voted Pinoy blog of the week! The Composed Gentleman runs a weekly poll of Filipino blogs and readers vote for their favorite. Thank you, talksmart, for nominating this blog.