Tax Time + Holiday Recap

Yes, I’m still A.W.O.L. I do apologize for that. I’ve got a million things on my plate right now and nowhere near enough time.

It’s my first year doing taxes you see. As last year was my first year of working and selling in the US, I now have to navigate the maze that is filing taxes. And it hasn’t been easy with our different sources of income and expenses.

Luckily, I did some research and purchased a highly recommended spreadsheet for etsy sellers from Handmadeology. Admittedly, after getting a job last year, I sort of backslid on keeping track of my records and I am certainly hustling to make up for lost time. Hence the absence.

Of course, my job has not not been the only thing keeping me busy. For the holidays, I got to spend three glorious weeks with the people I love the most, my family, in the Philippines! Aside from that, these are some of the awesome things we got to do in my home town of Cebu (and Manila)

1. Ate lots of Lechon (declared the best roast pig in the world by Anthony Bourdain)

2. Ate at a Peking Duck Buffet

3. Ate at a buffet that featured Foie Gras

4. Got to catch up with my much missed friends and see their cute babies

5. Got to meet up with my closest friend from my stint in Bangkok (which was a total surprise and serendipitous considering she lives in Singapore!)

6. Got to eat lots of seafood (Apparently there was even a year in my life where I would eat nothing but shrimp.)

7. Had mini reunion with cousins from Manila and London

8. Got to swim with whalesharks! H even got to dive with them! (He scuba-dives and I don’t.)

9. Spent a lot of quality time with my dog, who’s getting quite old and I always worry that something will happen to him while I’m away.

10. Plus got to celebrate my niece’s and brother’s birthday with them too!

11. And of course, got to spend Christmas and New Year’s eve with my family and enjoy all of our holiday traditions

Christmas is a HUGE deal in the Philippines. As early as August 31 (not even what we call the “Ber” months, you know SeptemBER, OctoBER, etc) Christmas carols are already playing in the malls, decorations start to pop up everywhere, and stores start to go on sale. I must say, I love that my parents have made an effort to create traditions that we follow and I sorely get homesick when I don’t get to celebrate the holidays with them. I am super grateful that we were able to go home and spend time with them. As much as I hate to admit it, we’re all getting a little older and I’ve very much learned to value the time we spend together.

So, in a nutshell, that’s why I haven’t had time to blog and will probably still be laying low a while while I work on balancing my every day life again. Wish me luck and I hope you had a holiday season as wonderul as we did!