December 2016

I started the month with getting the first Friday of the month off. I took advantage of this day by going to Standing Rock Sioux Native Reservation in the Dakotas. I was doubting first of going, but after doing this blog (Neutral Perspective: Dakota Access pipeline project’s Pros & Cons goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com ) from a neutral perspective and getting a lot of "hits'. I wanted to see this whole movement with my own eyes after getting frustrated with the "violence" going on between law enforcement and the "water protectors" (a.k.a. protestors) via social media (many friends on facebook sharing posts on this issue)...

(Picture taken right before leaving Rosebud Camp after three days with showering...lol)

If interested in reading my personal ventures, here is the 1st of 3-> My Personal Adventure Visit to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation: Day #1 -Friday, December 2nd 2016

I had the 2nd Friday off from work again, which I took this time to install my new "water saver" toilet in the main floor of my rental house I live in. It went pretty well, which I wrote a blog on being "green" and eco friendly as part of my post-Standing Rock action (e.g. Living more of a "green energy saving life" by decreasing the dependency on fossil fuels). I even rode my bike first day going back to work in the mist or light rain.

I had more days off in December as I was trying to use all my vacation days that I didn't use since I like to save them towards the end of the year for "unexpected life" stuff (e.g. vacation to Hawaii 2 years ago). December is a month of many holiday celebrations, so I had a pretty "easy" month work-wise. I'm very blessed and thankful for my job!

On Friday (16th), my friends-co-workers and I went to see the highly anticipated Star Wars Movie: Episode 8-"Rogue 1". I ended up walking there in the cold wintry Friday evening and came early. There wasn't as many people as last year's "Force Awakens". I liked the movie so much that I had to go back on watching the 1st ever made -Episode IV: Star Wars-"New Hope" . I found so many parallels to these movies that I ended up writing a blog-> Movie: Star Wars Series Reflections goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com

My last day at work (full-time job) was on the 22nd as we had the Friday before Christmas Eve off, which was the start of a long 1 1/2 week vacation for both my ft and pt jobs! I used my vacation time for my part-time job, so I can spend a longer time in St. Paul with my my immediate family. I spent some quality time with them and did a lot of fun winter activities:

Went to the Mall of America with my sister and her friend, which we just went "window shopping" and walked the entire 3 1/2 floor (equates to 3 1/2 miles). Then 2 days later, my sister and I took our niece and nephew ice skating at the John Oval Roseville Skating Center...

Fitness: How to teach kids ice skating? goodnewshealthandfitness.wordpress.com
Sal teaching Nephew How to Ice Skate

I bought 4 tickets to see "White Christmas" the musical at the Ordway Theatre in downtown St. Paul. I took my parents and nephew with me, which was a great performance....

..it's based on one of my favorite Christmas holiday movies, which I loved watching since I was a kid. I ended up recording some songs (karaoke version) from it prior (Music: Karaoke-“White Christmas” by Crazy lil’ Sal ) and after (Music: Karaoke-“Count Your Blessings” by “Crazy lil’ Sal” creativemusicartsy.wordpress.com .

I then went back to Morris early Friday morning as I had to deliver newspapers with clients from my ft-job . I did some errands before going back to St. Paul the next day to bring a friend (Luciano from Brazil) to the airport that same day. When we arrived, we flew his drone behind my parents' home by Battle Creek Middle School. He shared a "live feed" of our time on facebook. My parents were awe about watching the footage as we saw a 360 view up in the air of our neighborhood. My brother took his son and nephew with us to go ice skating at Edina's Centennial Lakes Park ....

December 2015

The last month of 2015 started with a presentation (Sal's Presentation on the Philippines: Spanish Connection) I was invited to do at the Jane Addams Project, which I have been attending since it started 3-4+ years ago at the local university..

It was an interactive presentation I wanted to do to bridge the diverse attendees. The karaoke idea would ended up being part of the end of the semester's party too (Friday, December 4th). I bought this microphone at the local Radio Shack and just attached it to my electric guitar speakers, which made an easy "homemade" karaoke machine that I can use for the future.

Going back, I would attend the local college campus IVCF service as a friend came back to lead a "healing service", which was just a faith builder for all. He would lead a bunch of other college students to do a "Treasure Hunt" the following day, but I wouldn't be able to come since our local church had our once a month group worship practice.

On Saturday, December 5th-I went snowboarding (my friend Chris came along, but he skied) for the first time in 2 years. I wasn't able to go to Andes Tower Hills earlier this year because it was just too cold. When it warmed up in March, all the snow melted quickly :( I had to warm my self up, so I went on the bunny hill first. After awhile, I would end up going on all the hills that were open and ended-up in the biggest hill! :)

I would spend most of the 2nd week by working on the videos for the recent musical I videotaped for the local high school-> The Addams Family Musical .

During the 2nd weekend, some long-time friends that moved out of Morris came back to visit. We would hangout at the newest Mexican restaurant in town..

It was good to catch-up and to know my friend Eric is doing a lot better since his surgery. The following day (Sunday 13th), I played a video (Spoken Word: “Who Am I….”...

... I previously recorded with a short -testimony at church during the annual "Christmas Program".

The month of December has many great holiday parties and one of them is the annual "Tea Party" at my workplace. On Wednesday (16th), the weather was "horrible". In fact, many schools around the area cut out early, but we kept going. We thought the numbers were going to be really down, but we had a better turn out than expected with the weather. The next day, I would play some indoor soccer with a couple of friends (Michael & Chris), which was my cardio workout for the week! :)

On the 18th (Friday), some co-workers (Paul, Oray, and Olga) and I went to see the highly anticipated movie "Star Wars: . I was so pumped up after the movie that I ended up making a whistling video of the theme afterwards-> Music: “Star Wars” movie theme (whistling). The next day, I went to Andes Tower Hills again and took a friend/co-worker (Oray) and "tried" to teach him to snowboard..

It was a little colder than 2 weekends ago, so I actually wore my heavy winter jacket instead of my fall one.

The day before Christmas Eve, I was invited to videotape the Christmas program of St. Mary's School at the Assumption Church. Prior to videotaping, I went to a co-worker's party she hosted for us. Unfortunately, I parked on the side of the road and got stuck. This caused me to be late and ended up having some technical problems with my camcorder. Fortunately (thank God), I was able to correct it in-time, but missed several performers (kids playing piano) :( .

My work (pt-job) called me the day before Christmas Eve that I didn't have to work the over night, but I ended up staying in Morris (instead of going to St. Paul early) to work on the recent Christmas Program video and other "catching-up" projects (e.g. cleaning my house). It was actually a great start of my 1 1/2 week vacation. I would end up going "home" (St. Paul) to visit family during Christmas vacation-weekend. It was good to see family and help my aging parents out.

I ended up coming back to Morris to deal with some home appliance issues (water heater got old and was done) after my housemate/renter emailed me the problem. I came home to find a "leak" around the water heater, which was sign it was definitely finished and "NOT" fixable. Prior, I stopped at Menards to scout out the available water heaters, but didn't pick one yet as I didn't have the dimensions. I look back and wished I just took the chance and got one, IF a friend/Morris resident (I saw there) that happened to be there could've been able to load it back to Morris. Anyways, I ended up paying this plumber (Chris from Elbow Lake) to do the job after a couple of friends weren't able to.

I was thankful to God that I got it fixed and replaced as soon as possible (within 3-days). Couldn't find a perfect time for this to happen. I would have to work my pt-job (overnight) once this last week of the month before I went back to the cities to watch a theatrical performance at St. Paul's Ordway Center -> Sound of Music. I've been anticipating in seeing this since I first heard about it coming to St. Paul back in August/early September. It was all God's provision as I tried to buy these tickets for last week's performance, but couldn't find any "good seats". I even was about to purchase some "bad seats", but the computer wouldn't let me charge it to my credit card. I look back at this and feel it was definitely ad "Divine" work of God as it's rare that my credit card payment didn't go through when purchasing online. I happened to be playing on the computer to check out other performance days later and found a date (31st) of an "added show" that was "last minute" added...Praise the Lord! I ended up inviting my parents and nephew. My sister ended up tagging along with her fiance (James), but couldn't get closer seats because they bought it later even though I emailed my sister the "last minute show added" the day I purchased it, but she didn't want to take the chance with the weather. I ended up taking a risk as I saw this as an opportunity that might not be open again!

My highlights of 2015..

December 2014

I had another day off from my full-time job on the 5th (Friday) as my "last" days to take days off for the year. It was good timing as I took advantage of this time to "catch-up" (e.g. errands). I finished my last "CHRISTmas" shopping for family as I was able do it all in one website (family Christian store), which I wished they still had the Family Christian Bookstore in Morris (City Center Mall). It closed years ago, but it was a great place to go in my "early" years as a Christian.

The following day, it was a "packed" day as I had a list of scheduled events to go all day. I started the morning by attending a new "training workshop" my local church is hosting called "Toast to the Master" (parody of Toastmasters-see Good News Words). It's a 2 hour training workshop to be better public "speakers/teachers". I took speech classes back in college, but one gets "rusty" if one hasn't fine-tuned/sharpened their skills. It was a great workshop as I got great advice/tips (e.g. don't look at the sky, but look at the audience; begin your speech with something that will captivate your audience right away-getting their attention right away is key!, etc...). We all did 3 different speeches (e.g. I shared about my recent song writing, my recent weekend with parents to see "Cirque de Sol", and ?) in various lengths in our own groups (two) , which was very fun and informational.

Afterwards, I went to see the movie "Frozen" finally for the 1st time after doing various music videos (parody and the theme song-"Let it Go"). I invited some friends, which they were there too. It was fun to see and hear the kids present take part of the "sing-along" version. It was a pretty good turn out for a Saturday morning at the college.

I then decided to drive to Hancock for a special service of a guest speaker (Paul Rapley) on healing. We got "more" (been to Rapley's teachings before) "equipped" on this ministry gift area, which we then applied around town though "treasure hunting" in two different groups. My group went to Willies Super Valu and Regional Fitness Center. Great testimonies from this 2nd time experience as my group prayed for a lady that I know who was limping as she was pushing her grocery cart. Another guy was someone we just chatted with and he seem to want to just talk-great conversation with a guy that I've seen regularly around town. An advantage of living in a small town!

I took part of the worship team the first weekend of the month, which was always a blessing, which I just forgot to check my email of our monthly schedule as I wrote this (January 2nd 2014). Joining the worship team has given me the heart to sing more and practice wherever I go.

On Monday (8th), I celebrated a birthday with some friends (former ESL student of mine) at Bella Cucina, which is always a treat going there. It's the most priciest restaurant, which I usually don't go here unless it's a special occasion. I went to Insanity (cardio fitness group)at the local gym (RFC) a couple of times this month, which has been very beneficial (keeps me warm during the cold winter season, great for the heart, and it's probably the most intense work out with the help of a motivating instructor-I highly encourage this fitness group if your looking for one for the "new year".

On Thursday (11th), we had our annual "Christmas Tea Party" at my workplace (full-time job), which I didn't over do it this year with the "sweets" (gets me sick and seems like it does with everybody, which isn't good with the high rate of "flu" victims around the country lately). Later in the evening, the local "Morris Special Olympics" hosted a basketball fundraiser at the local high school, which was a great community promotion and awareness (e.g. disability) of volunteers needed.

The next day (12th), my workplace celebrated the retirement of our boss at one of my co-workers house after work. I'm very thankful to her for giving me this job since I was invited back in 2006. Thank you Emmy! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay longer as I had to leave for a friend's wedding party as one of the groomsmen. We had practice that evening and went to Bella Cucina..my second time within a week! What a blessing :) I had a chance to get to know both families of the bride and groom (both friends), which is always an extra blessing.

We had our (Morris Literacy Project )last class (ESL & GED) of the year, so we had a party! We celebrated the birthday of one of our students and made it a holiday party too!

The following day, I met up with a buddy from church as I'm trying to better on equipping other fellow believers through meeting ("discipling") one and one regularly. We ended up sharing our own personal testimonies and just building that bond as a family or brother in Christ.

On Sunday (21st), I did my first "share" at my local church's (Morris Community Church) annual CHRISTmas program (<-start 18:00-30:00 minute mark in podcast), which I never had the boldness to do since I've been part of the church. Two years ago, I shared about my trip to the Philippines, but I ended up doing it the Sunday after due to schedule problems. I ended up sharing a video I made a month prior with the theme...

Afterwards, I just shared a brief glimpse of my testimony (e.g. knee injury due to "pride" before the fall while downhill skiing at a nearby ski-resort during "financial" challenges in college). Then I shared about the abundant life (John 10:10) that comes after coming to Christ as one gets ride of their sinful nature (Galatians 5). I videotaped the other great performances/shares, which can be viewed in private settings via facebook if interested-contact me to be added.

I had my last day of work on the 23rd as we had to make a day up due to a "snow day" last month. It was fun as we had our annual Christmas part (clients opened presents). The next day, I took advantage of the start of my 2 week vacation by finishing some errands and going out with friends to do things I'm not able to do during my busy work schedule. On the 24th, a couple of friends and I checked out the newest restaurant in town (Mi-Mexico)...muy delicioso (very delicious in Spanish)!

I had to work the overnight (holiday pay..oh yeah!) on Christmas Eve and then went to St. Paul on Christmas morning after work. It was a pretty good drive (nice weather) despite a little traffic as I got closer to the Twin Cities. As I exited off interstate 94 (eastbound) in St. Paul on Ruth St., I had the opportunity to share some "Good News" with some "Folks with Signs Along the Highway Exit Ramps" (<-see blog) both on CHRISTmas day and the day after (after dropping off my car to get an oil change). We had a Christmas gathering at my younger brother's family house and enjoyed the company of the "whole" (in-laws) family as we did on Thanksgiving last month. My dad, mom, and I would end up going to a movie matinee of the anticipated showing of "Unbroken". We got there 15 minutes before the start and there were only 3 rows open up front as this was the opening day. It wasn't the most ideal seating, but we were glad to get in with the crowds. The movie was about 2 1/2 hours, which my mom got antsy the last hour-kept asking "when was the movie going to end". My dad was looking forward to this movie as I shared Louis Zamperini's amazing story online via facebook. I was so touched by the movie, I decided to listen to the audio book online after writing his blog...

Personal Life Messages from the movie Unbroken December 28, 2014 goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com

During my 4-days in the Twin Cities, I was able to do a lot of family quality time [e.g. ride my bike at Battle Creek Park in Maplewood with parents, who walked (26th-Friday); this is before the snow the following day (27th-Saturday, driving with bro and his fam to a couple of Christmas "Holiday" Drive-thru displays (e.g. Valley Lights at Rockpoint Church in Elmo Lake, sharing some "old" classic Filipino music with my dad, clean the house, etc...]

I had to get back to Morris on Sunday (28th) since I had to work the overnight at my part-time job. It was a good drive as I made a couple of singing videos along the way home with the CHRISTmas holidays (e.g. What Child is this?). I spent the last days of the year enjoying my last week of my two week vacation from my work by "catching-up" on some projects (e.g. multi-media projects). I ended the year with a "big bang" by videoing a friend's wedding ceremony and reception-dance party in town. I had to work the overnight that same night, so I entered the new year-2015 at work on the computer and went to bed!

More coming for 2015! Feel free to share yours too with me via in person (e.g. hangout over a meal), phone call, email (e.g. on facebook), etc... Keep in touch friends!

December 2013

I started the last month of 2013 with my mom making pancakes during my "Thanksgiving Weekend" visit "home" (St. Paul) with my housemate (Yuu from Japan). Before heading back to Morris, I went to visit my sister and her boyfriend. My niece (Alysa) had a gymnastics competition in the Highland neighborhood in St. Paul, but wasn't able to make it :(. It was a good "holiday" visit overall! On the 3rd (Tuesday), I attended the "last" Jane Adams gathering for the Fall of 2013. The following day (4th-Wednesday), my workplace (DAC) closed 1 hour earlier due to the winter storm (2-4"??). To keep warm during the winter, one of my favorite "physical workout" activities is playing racquetball! Due to cold wind chills (30 below Farenheit), my route to take clients to and from Benson was cancelled. After work (full-time job), I went out with my housemates (Kazu & Yuu) to go grocery shopping. Wind chills were still high (35-45 below), but I rode my bike 3-4 blocks to Bella Cucina to help celebrate my friend's (former ESL student, from Kyrgyzstan). I just came for dessert (Nacho Ice Cream? and had an appetizer.

On Sunday (8th), my local church was invited to join another family of Christ at Hossana Worship Center for a healing service. It was just another faith builder in my "daily growing walk" with my Heavenly Father as it taught me to seek my potential gifts through Him! See stories-> (Hossana Worship Center Healing Service with Paul Rapley, please feel free contact me to add you to my list to view or Good News Thankful).

I attended my weekly (Wednesdays @7-8am) "bible-study fellowship", which Neil & Ruth shared about the importance of applying the "spiritual gifts" (e.g. word of knowledge) daily to "encourage" others. ON Friday (13th), I used my "vacation" (day-off) time before the year ends, so I took advantage of this with "catching-up" on many errands (house cleaning) and multi-media projects. Later in the evening, I attended my housemate (Yuu's)'s end-of-the-semester "University Choir Concert. The following day, I went to do my every other month (or so) visit of a friend at Moose Lake Prison. I meant to go much earlier, but the schedule for my friend's father didn't work out and "worse" weather the weekend before. However, the weather wasn't as good too. Despite the less than 1" inch of snow falling between Moose Lake and Mora, it was still challenging to drive. Just driving slowly and carefully (using 2 hands on the wheel) was key!

On Sunday, December 15th, my local church had their annual "Family Christmas Program Service". It's a time for folks to "show-off" their God given talents to bless the rest of the church family. I then had to leave early to get ready for my job's annual trip to Willmar for the "Christmas Fundraiser Play-"The Voice" at the Assemby of God church there. I would take a picture of their Nativity set to be used as my personal Christmas Card.

Due to the past cold days, my housemate's (Jin) car needed a jump start (see miracle story)! Our 1st time was unsuccessful, but the 2nd time (after meeting with a friend at DQ about our weekly ESL Classes)-we got it, thankful to God! The following day, we had our weekly ESL/GED classes, which we had a new student (Rai from Pakistan), who will be here for 6 months or so (till April)-like his many predecessors (other USDA Soils Lab Ph.D seeking college graduates).

I didn't go to work 2 1/2 hours later the next day as I had some hours left of "vacation" time to use up before the end of the year. I ended-up working on some Christmas pictures that I plan to share with my co-workers, which many do holiday greetings cards to share amongst my workplace....

It was pretty much an easy day at work as I "worked" for 2 1/2 hours before our annual "DAC Christmas Party", which we exchanged gifts. It was fun and blessed for the many gifts. On Friday (20th), I invited my future housemate (Rai) to hangout, which we (Yuu along) watched "Hunger Games (1st)". It was my second time watching this since my 17-hour plane trip from the Philippines back in November 25th 2012.

It was the "first" official day of Winter on the 21st, but it feels like it started earlier this month. In fact, it feels like January-February with the recent "frigid" temps. To keep warm, my housemates (Yuu and Rai) and I played a game of Racqueball) on Saturday afternoon.

I got a 1 1/2+ week vacation from my full-time job, so I took advantage of this break to "catch-up" on my multi-media projects. I had to work my part-time job (group home overnight) during my 1 1/2 + week break (from ft-job), but it was a "financial blessing" with the holiday season. I biked a lot to work (just less than a mile according to my odometer when I measured it one day) during the night (for my 11p-7am shift) as I didn't want to bother starting my car for 5 minutes or longer with the cold. It was great exercise!

On Christmas Day (25th), my housemates got together to celebrate our housemate (Kazu)'s going away back "home" (Japan). We had a potluck first at our house before going bowling-my first time to do this on Christmas! I was scheduled to take Kazu with me to the Twin Cities the following day, but he was waiting for a package (economics book-> see college student discounts). It was being delivered late due to the crazy winter we've had all over the nation. He finally got the book the following day (Friday) just minutes after our scheduled time we hope to leave no matter if the book came...thank God!.

We (Kazu & I) left around 1ish on Friday for the Twin Cities after our "tearful goodbyes" to our other housemates. It was a beautiful day (30's), which we couldn't pick a better day to travel 3 hours to the Twin Cities. Kazu had the hunger for Korean food, so we went to a restaurant on Snelling in St. Paul. It was a great snack (late lunch) before heading to my parents' place. Kazu went to "hangout" with his other college friends during his 4-day weekend in the Twin Cities before leaving to Japan on Monday (December 30th). I was fortunate to stay in the cities for 4 days as a co-worker and I traded shifts together-another answer to prayer (God's provision)! Earlier, I was somewhat frustrated that I had to stay "longer" in Morris after Christmas, but it worked out with this shift change. Plus, it was somewhat "better" weather on Monday (warmer, but slicky with 1" snowfall in Twin Cities). I'm just grateful that I was able to get out of the Twin Cities before it got worse (300 car accidents according to the news when I got home). While Kazu spent most of the time with his friends, I was able to spend quality family time as a "late Christmas" get-together. I took Kazu and my nephew to the batting cages on Rice Street before doing a "last minute" video project for Kazu's friend (Ace-> Oromo Community of Minnesota 2014 Agenda). We then went to one (eggrolls on University Ave & Dale St.) of two more (spring rolls in Duc Restaurant in Woodbury) Vietnamese restaurants the next two days. On Sunday (December 29th), I took Kazu to Mall of America to get some "Minnesota memorabilia" for family-friends back at home. We when went to downtown Minneapolis to visit the Original Baseball Museum (across where the Vikings were playing the Lions in their "last game" ever!). It was very cold this day, which I can't imagine what it'll be like the next two years for the Vikings outdoors (TCF Stadium)!

For New Year's Eve, I took my housemates (Yuu and Rai) to a family's house (local church family that lives outside of town) that invited the rest of the Morris Community Church family to ring-in the New Year! I was a little hesitant about going with the cold weather (below zero) , but we (housemates and I) were tired of being indoors most of the weekend. I'm glad we went as we had a good time (eating, fellowship, playing pool, etc..).

Gratitude: December 2011

I began the last month of the year by working out for the first two days. I renewed my annual membership at the local fitness center and won 10% off, which is lower than my friend (Hafiz) who won %50 off!!

On Saturday, December 3rd I took a couple of "new" Morris residents to Alexandria for the weekend. We first stopped at Glenwood along the way to visit the local county museum as it was FREE, which was part of an open house fundraiser.



After the open house, we drove just 15 minutes north to Alexandria to attend the annual theater performance every Christmas holiday season of "Gospel According to Scrooge". ..



*I ended up writing a blog on this play's plot after a recent conversation regarding family gatherings during the "holidays" (see Restoring Relationships on goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com


The following day was the annual Christmas Program that many of the clients I work with at the DAC performed. This year, it was held at Firth Lutheran Church.



"Santa and Mrs. Claus handing gifts and posing with clients for pictures after the Christmas program"


Sport Update: The Minnesota Vikings continued to add to their losing season by getting defeated (on Sunday, December 4th of 2011) by the Denver Broncos (Tim Tebow, who was born and raised in the Philippines to American missionaries).

On Tuesday, December 6th my friend (Hafiz) and I attended our last Jane Adams Project (see espanol services) get-together. It was "muy" (very) festive (Feliz Navidad)...



The year is coming to an end, so I had to use the remainder of my vacation time from my full-time job. I took a 4-day weekend the 2nd week of the month to finish some "stuff" (e.g. house projects). I celebrated a ESL student of mine's birthday at Don's Cafe for a late breakfast and continued to celebrate with my closest friends the next day with her at Bella Cucina.



I spent my last day of the 4-day weekend by attending the monthly gathering (learning more about applying our spiritual gifts) at my pastor's house. We had a guest (Stu) that shared on "knowledge" and "prophecy" (see MCC December 2011 Newsletter by Jan N.). I personally got a word of encouragement on "restoring relationships" (see blog above), which was just a confirmation! Praise God!

We did more "end of the year" holiday celebrations as we had our "last" day (Wednesday, December 14th 2011) of our weekly (Wednesday's) ESL-GED classes..

The following day (Thursday, December 15th 2011), we had our annual "Christmas Tea Party" (had a record over 120 recorded guest-families, friends, etc.. of our 70 or so clients)...




My co-worker continued our tradition from last year by ringing the bell for Salvation Army. This year, we added a reindeer with us and did it for 2 hours at Pamida. One thing I really noticed compared to last year was the customers weren't as "smiley" (see Is it really the "Most Wonderful Time Of The Year ?" blog I wrote afterwards)




The third weekend of the month, I took more hours from my vacation time by having a 3-day weekend. I spend it in the cities with Hafiz as I wanted to show him my hometown where I grew up. We went to several big popular tourist places..

Friday, December 16th (Downtown Minneapolis)

Macys 8th Floor A Day in the Life of an Elf


Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis

Saturday, December 17th (Mall of America in Bloomington, MN)




"Hafiz and my mom taking a break during our 3 mile walk around the 3rd largest mall in the world"

The last day of this weekend, I showed Hafiz the popular Summit Avenue (west of downtown St. Paul) and then more of downtown Minneapolis before dropping him off at the bus stop (Megabus-cheaper than Greyhound). Ironically, it was located across the Metrodome where the Vikings had a game with the defending 2010 Champions (Saints). They were tailgating across the street. I wanted to spend time with my niece and nephew, so I ended up playing soccer outside (40's) with him for awhile before playing games at Maplewood Mall. I then headed back to Morris for another short-week.

It was another week with more Christmas parties at both of my jobs as I didn't eat supper several times this week because of the supper-like snacks at the parties! On Tuesday, December 20th-I took a former student (Int'l student from China) along with his friends and mine on a drive through Morris to look at the various Holiday lights (the most spectacular display was the mobile homes along Lake Crystal)!

My 10-day vacation from my full-time job started Friday, December 22nd till tomorrow (Sunday, January 1st of 2012), which I would spend it "occupied". I got 42 hours right away within 3+ days (28 hours straight at one group home) with much of it "holiday pay" to help fill in the hours of co-workers that wanted the holiday off to spend time with their families. I didn't mind as I "try" celebrate Christmas "every day". I'm currently finishing my "end of the year" stuff (e.g. photos, videos, blogs, etc..) at my mom's house. It's been a great remainder 6-day vacation from both jobs as I spend it with family (e.g. open gifts late this past Tuesday when I arrived from Morris after dropping off Krishna-from Nepal-at the Greyhound bus station, watched "Soul Surfer" and other "family videos" with family (including my 7yr. old niece and 4 yr. old nephew) Wednesday, rode along with my bro's family around the Lights Display at Phalen in St. Paul, drove my mom to do various errands, etc..) and friends (will be spending time with them New Year's Eve tonight as Hafiz arrives from Ohio by bus, my housemate/renter arrived last night from S. Carolina after a 6 hour delay, etc..).

more coming & have a blessed New Year!!!!