Counting My 2010 Blessings

2010 is finally coming to a close in a couple of days. It has been a roller coaster ride for me, but I should say that there were more ups  than downs this year. The blessings far outweighs the mishaps. It was one great year and there’s no other way to close it than counting the blessings that I received this year. This is my own way of thanking the Lord and appreciating a life that has been so good. So here it goes …

1.  MY WIFE and BABY’s PRESENCE. This is topping the list. This is the first time that I got to spend a whole year with them. It was last year when they joined me here in the UAE and we were never away from each other after that. Since 1999, I was working abroad, and was basically living alone away from home. But for the whole year this year, I got to enjoy the company of a family. It was so nice to come home from work, with your wife and baby waiting to kiss and hug you. This is the life I’ve been wanting to have.
2. GOOD HEALTH. There were a few clinic trips, but nothing major. I am glad that my family and I remained healthy for the whole year. I just regret that I never got back to the gym for the whole year too. I guess I have to include that on my new year resolutions. Good luck on that.
3. WORK.  Although working is something that many of us does not like to do, we should still consider it as a blessing. This is the bread-and-butter of everything that I have so I should feel lucky to remain employed in a big and known hospital such as ours. It has been a great year at work too as I got a pretty good annual appraisal. I guess my performance has leveled up too, as I gained more experience at work.
4. FRIENDS.  I wish I could count and remember all the names of the many good friends I had this year. I gained new friends from my Formula 1 trip, from work, from trips, from patients, from blogging and from FB.
5. FACEBOOK. Having mentioned FB, this year was when I really started to be a facebook fan. I got to find my old friends here. It was also easier to find out what friends and relatives are up to. It was easier to connect with people. I was a Friendster fan before, but I moved in to FB this year coz here was a lot better.
6. BLOGGING. Blogging has been my outlet to release what my mind wants to tell. I write for myself basically, but it was an icing to the cake that there were people reading and commenting. I gained so many friends here too. My participation to blogosphere events such as BC BLOGGERS, BLOG BLAST FOR PEACE and HOLIDAY BLOGSTASTIC SHOUT OUT gave me the heights of my blogging career this year. I should not forget that as I am now a contributing writer for the FILIPINO NURSES BLOG SITE, I feel I have leveled up in terms of writing.
7. VACATIONS. I had two long breaks this year when my family and I got to go home to the Philippines for some refreshing. Those were in November and October. We went to Disneyland. We swam. We ate. We shopped. We slept a lot.
8. HONGKONG TRIP. The trip to Hongkong with my family was one of my 2010 highlights. It was a nice place to visit and DISNEYLAND was one great venue of happiness.
9. YAS ISLAND TRIP.  This was my second time to be sent to work as a paramedic for the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Last year, I was in the night shifts so I enjoyed watching the races at daytime. This year, I was in the day shifts, so I got to enjoy the activities in the night such as nightly concerts. I was able to watch KANYE WEST, LINKIN’ PARK and PRINCE perform. I should mention that I gained so many new friends in this event, mostly nurses who work in different hospitals in Abu Dhabi.
10. OUR FLAT. It has been a year now since we moved in here to our new place here in Al Ain. We are now living at the city center and we are loving the convenience of being a stone throw away to all the shops we need to and like to visit.
11. MY NETBOOK. I bought this last April, then there was never a day that I never touched it. It’s a Dell Inspiron Netbook. Loved it.

And there goes my annual countdown of blessings!  I have so many things to thank for and I am actually thinking now as to whether I have forgotten something major.  It’s good to remember all that we are blessed with.

It has been a great 2010 for me and my family and I hope that 2011 will be as great. The Lord has been very good to us.

Have a happy, prosperous and blessed new year to everyone!

pic: publigestion.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody is having a great Christmas. Uhm, I know not all, but at least most of you.

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Some 800 families were displaced after a big fire destroyed their houses in Muntinlupa City yesterday. And it was Christmas eve.

Nobody died, at least. Something to thank for. They all still have each other. I wish they would overcome these difficult times and that they could start anew from the ashes. I hope they still find some Christmas spirit in their hearts.

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A dear friend of mine lost her mother yesterday. And it was Christmas eve.

She had to fly home last week to be with her. At least, she was able to take care of her in the hospital before she died. We pray for her and her family.

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Let us appreciate all the blessings that come our way. Remember that not everyone is fortunate enough to be celebrating a happy Christmas. And that the best gifts in life are not found under the Christmas tree.

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A blessed Christmas to all.

Overnight Desert Camping

Last Thursday night, my family joined an event here in our place, dubbed “Pre-Christmas Desert Safari.” We had so much fun and my little boy enjoyed a lot. There was also some barbeque, live band, videoke, and some dancing. The weather was so cool and it was a good time to be with “bare” nature, that is – the desert!

 

From Her Desk

My blogger friend Kate of Recommended Daily Dose is hosting this year’s Holiday Blogstastic Shout Out. If you have not heard of this thing, this is a bloggy scheme to spread love in blogoshere by choosing a blog you follow, and featuring it on your own blog. Everyone who does this gets linked at Kate’s site on 23rd December.

This is my first time to participate and I am choosing my blogger friend Aileen’s blog to feature.

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FROM THE DESK OF AIDISAN

I am a very homey person. I’d rather stay at home than go outside that jungle. I guess I could explain that due to the nature of my job as a nurse in a very busy surgical unit. My work requires me to be in contact with people – patients, doctors, co-nurses, patient relatives and so on. I talk a lot and I am always on the move. I guess my energy gets drained by being around so many people and around stressful situations.

I find that staying at home, and staying away from the crowd recharges me. I find that relaxing at home with my family allows me to regain my energy and brings back my spirit.

At home, I am most of the time on the net checking out cool blog sites that I enjoy reading. One blog I follow is From the Desk of Aidisan by blogger Aileen.

I find her blog so homey, as she usually talks about family and food. This gets me away from tiring topics such as celebs, politics and business. I want to stay out of the busy world, and so she brings me posts to relax my mind. If I need to be in a busy-mode, I’ll start digging into my paperwork. But if I need to slow it down, I’ll try to have a peek at her site to check if she posted something new.

I love it when she posts something about the food she prepared, or the food she had from a resto. I love good food, like eveyone else I suppose.

Need to be homey? Check her site out.

My Site is Here!

My fellow peace blogger thought of putting up a site to join all the peace bloggers around the globe. The site is named Peace Bloggers Unite and you can visit it HERE.

It is an honor to find my site on that page so I took a screen print to show you all Here it is!

Thanks ANNELISA! Peace be with you!

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One of my articles appears today at the Filipino Nurses Blog Site (the site has 191,955 members to date). Here’s a screen-print of the page. My article was originally published here in Digital Catharsis a few days back.

To visit the article at Filipino Nurses Blog Site, click HERE.

To visit the link post in FB via RSS Graffiti, click HERE.

To visit the link repost in my FB profile, click HERE.

To view the original post from this site, click HERE.

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07Dec2010 1300H – just to add another link in FB via Sendible, click HERE.