01 January 2011

bye 2010, welcome 2011!


Day 1 of the year 2011. Thank You, Lord, that You have given us Yourself and Your word, so we will not get lost in the jungle of life. We can face the new year with confidence. 


We had our new year dinner earlier at around 9 pm coz we were already hungry. Could not wait for 12 midnight or the media noche dinner. My mom who is visiting is our main guest. So there were only the 3 of us. I prepared tuna spaghetti and pesto spaghetti just few hours before. We had the queso de bola which I brought from the Philippines when I was there in mid-Dec. Then a bottle of red wine by Siam Winery which tasted surprisingly ok. We read from the book of Psalms, sang Great is Thy Faithfulness, and prayed to worship and thank the Lord for His blessings, and committed the new year to Him. We also thought of Dad, remembering him and missing his presence during this time of the year. He would have loved the red wine and the queso de bola. We did not have his other favourites such as walnuts (did not find them in our local supermarket) and sweet ham (finished last Christmas).




So it's now 2011! We witnessed two countdowns: an hour before midnight struck in Thailand, the Philippines welcomed the new year. At least one of the times when you can't say 'Filipino time' coz we were ahead not late, if you know what I  mean. We watched the countdown live through http://www.hayag.com, where we could connect with the major TV stations. Of course along with the new year festivities in Luneta and Eastwood, as well as at the TV stations, there were also some news flashes from hospitals in Metro Manila area where those wounded by firecrackers were being treated. 


The second countdown we watched was of course the ones here in Thailand - the local TV stations featured those in Pattaya, as well as in Bangkok (Future Park, Siam Paragon), Khon Kaen and Chiangmai. We were also able to see real/live fireworks at midnight from our condo balcony...we were not so near them but we could see them light up the sky. The fireworks were beautiful. One just had to stop thinking for a while of the costs financially and  environmentally, as well as the effect on health for those inhaling the smoke from these firecrackers.


Switching channels was quite hectic but fun. At the same time we were also video chatting with my younger sister and her kids in Manila through YM. We wished the others were also online. But due to time differences, we had to schedule our video chats accordingly.


Wishing everyone a happy new year! May our hearts have that "hopeful faith" that 2011 will be a better one than 2010, because we know that our future is in the hands of the One who created all things, knows all things, and especially knows what is best for us!





1 comment:

Francis Morilao said...

Happy New year to you and your family!

God Bless!