Little Miss Honey

WINDY BIRTHDAY STAYCATION AT CROWNE PLAZA MUSCAT

February 19, 2022 by Little Miss Honey

For J birthday, we planned to spend a night in Crowne Plaza Muscat. We heard so much of the hotel from J’s friend who used to work there. We drove to Muscat on his birthday weekend. We went to Oman Avenue Mall first to buy some stuff then proceeded to Crowne Plaza Hotel. It was a very very windy day.

The drive to Crowne Plaza Muscat was such a lovely sight. You see the Qurum Beach at the left side and few cute cafes & restaurants spread out at the right. In the end of that beachside view drive up on a hill is the white huge building of Crowne Plaza.

We were attended by two lovely receptionists of the hotel. After seeing we have three active cute little ones with us, they upgraded our room. They gave us three kiddie loot bags for them. The kids were so happy to get them.

We got a ground floor room. The room was very spacious! There is a big king size bed. There was a large sofa set which the staff converted into one bed and added another additional bed.

We have a sliding door which leads to a large lawn outside with patio chairs outside. We were overlooking the tennis court and the swimming pool was nearby. The day was super windy, the tall potted plants were laid down to the ground.

We, of course, took our traditional hotel family photo. Then the kids were busy checking out their loot bag which contains a booklet of activities for the kids, stickers and coloured pencils. The kids were busy in each corner colouring the booklet and doing the activities in different pages.

When we all settled a bit, we change into our bathing suits and headed outside for a swim. There was a party in the restaurant near the pool and loud dancing music was blasting. People was happily partying near the poolside but no one was swimming. It was impossible to swim on that day because of the wind and we were advised not to swim in the big pool. The kids settled into swimming in the smaller pool in the corner. J and I ended up not swimming because it was just way too cold and too windy. We just watch over the kids who really wanted to swim but after 15 minutes, they wanted to get out of the water because it was too cold.

They ran for a bit on the ground. Our room was just nearby. We, then, went back to our room, away from the angry wind that is spoiling our fun for the day.

For dinner, we bought food beforehand in the mall. We got grilled chicken, chicken skin and garlic rice at Bacolod Chicken House and sushi at Zen Asian Fusion. J ordered some can of beers from room service. We had a satisfying dinner.

The next day, we were looking forward to our breakfast buffet. They have a wonderful spread, lots of variety of food to choose from – from salad, to cereal, to fruits, to main dishes, to breads and desserts. For eggs, you can tick in a paper what kind of egg you want and a server will bring you the eggs you ordered to your table.

Naj was happy with his pancakes from the pancake maker while Howell was enjoying with his big bowl of cereal. Zeke was busy with his donuts, banana and glass of juice. This is my happy brunch plate. This seems to me my go-to brunch meal in hotels : some greens, a bit of fruits, a smoke salmon if they have an vegetable omelette with cappuccino.

We had a lovely stay in Crowne Plaza Muscat. We weren’t able to maximize our stay because of the wind. We werent able to swim in their pool or visit the beach there. We might go back there one day. We will see….

Crowne Plaza Muscat

Qurum Heights, P.O. Box 1455, Muscat | 112 | Oman | 968-24-660660 | Email

HOW TO START THE NEW YEAR RIGHT: A LOOK BACK, GRATITUDE LIST, GOALS

February 5, 2022 by Little Miss Honey

One month has already passed for 2022. Time goes by so fast. I know of some people who haven’t even done their New Year Resolutions yet. It is not too late. Anyways, Chinese New Year just passed few days ago and we still have 11 months to make this year an amazing year filled with inspirations, goal-setting success and amazing experiences.

I will share with you how I reset my life every new year and the practice I have been doing yearly for every start of the year to improve my life yearly and strive to have an amazing year. I would buy a new small notebook where I will be writing several things in for my New Year. No need to buy expensive moleskin notebooks. I just buy in some Japanese or Korean store some cute notebook which cost me 1 rials (130 Philippines pesos or 3.5 Singapore dollars) only.

A LOOK BACK

I would start first 1-2 pages of the notebook writing what I felt & observe with the last year and what I hope & expect for the new year. It is a carefree writing of whatever comes to my mind regarding last year and for this new year.

GRATITUDE LIST

I would list down things I am grateful for from the last year. It is good to have a grateful heart for all the blessings of last year and to create an new open space for new blessings we were about to receive for the new year. It is wonderful to look back at all the lovely experiences, lessons, gifts and successes we have achieved and have been given. Through this exercises, we realised how much blessed we are. We sometimes forget the little blessings we have received through the year if we don’t look back. We would just focus on the misfortunes and problems we have encountered and conclude the last year was horrible. Last year, I thought it was just an okay year but when I created my list, I realised we have received so many blessings last year. I often feature my gratitude list in the blog.

GOALS

These are my New Year’s Resolutions. I make a list of things I want to achieve, places I want to go to and big ticket items I want to purchase. They are listed in no particular order. But this list is very important to me which I check back throughout the year.

To effectively achieve these goals, days after I’ve written it, once each day, I would segregate items that would be belong in similar categories. Example, if my goals is to achieve weight loss of 5 kg, I will include my other goal of drinking 1.5 L daily as well as my goal of exercising 20mins 5x a week as one goal of Healthy Lifestyle. I would put a same color asterisk to all my healthy lifestyle goals in the list. I will create one entry in my notebook with heading of Healthy Lifestyle and I would create more specific actions plans to achieve those goals. And next day, I will comb through the list again and search for similar goals. I will put another color asterisk to new category and create entry in notebook with actions for that category. By doing this, I can reach my goals better than just listing them down like a wish list for Santa.

ROLES AND ASPECTS OF LIFE

I, then, create a list of my roles in life. Examples are daughter of God, woman, mother, wife, doctor, daughter, sister, friend, colleague, relative, etc. Those roles that you feel are important to you. After each role, write 1-3 (or more) phrases of resolutions for each. Sample: Mother – be more present, be more firm, more cuddles & hugs. This is to ensure that my improvement and personal development yearly is wholistic, targeting all aspects and roles of my life.

THEME OF THE YEAR

Lastly, I usually have a theme for the year or a motto of the year which will serve as like a guide to what is the central target for the year. Like last last year was my year theme was Zen and I strive to create a peaceful & calm year. This year, my theme is Homecoming. I am working towards going back to my roots, my original destiny, my source of truth & life. This year also we place to take a vacation to the Philippines, a welcoming homecoming for the family.

TRADITIONS WE STOPPED DOING DURING CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR

January 18, 2022 by Little Miss Honey

Year-end winter holiday celebrations like Christmas and New Year have accumulated some accustomed traditions in several households, ours included. When we were younger, my mother have started lovely traditions during Christmas and New Year. On Christmas eve, we often go to church for a evening mass then when we go home we would be told to sleep because Santa Claus is coming and he doesn’t want to see kids awake. The adults will be busy in the kitchen. I would hear clanks and banging of kitchen pots, a cheerful chatters from the elders with a booming sound of Christmas songs from the speakers of our sound system. When we (the kids) are woken up a little pass 12 midnight for our Noche Buena (Christmas feast) followed by opening of presents. Our mother would often give us loads of gifts for Christmas. She would even wrapped even the tiniest gifts separately because she enjoy seeing us open our gifts. We will also check the socks we hang in the window for Santa to fill with goodies, usually with an apple, chocolates and candies. I would keep that sock filled sweets in a shoe box and I would slowly eat them for weeks after the festivities.

During New Year eve, we often lit noisy firecrackers and beautiful sparklers. We have a houseboy at home that took care of lighting up the firecrackers and sparklers for our safely. We often have 12 fruits displayed on a container on top of the dining table for New Year that represents abundance for the next 12 months. My mom just loves our reaction when we open gifts during Christmas so we don’t open all the gifts we got in Christmas and we save it for New Year’s Eve. My mom would often add more for New Year’s Eve.

My hubby’s Christmas traditions involved a big party with his family and the whole clan with lots of games, gift-giving and lots of laughter. He talked fondly of this memories of those parties.

Now that I have my own family, we tried to incorporate some of the traditions we have been accustomed to and made new ones. However, out of necessity, the current circumstances we are all experiencing now and practicality, there are some traditions we have stopped doing during Christmas and New Year.

Here are 5 traditions we stopped doing during Christmas and New Year:

1. Big holiday parties

Because of the pandemic and practicality , we opted for staycations over big holiday parties. We prefer to chill & quiet (me especially) over loads of preparation and more loads of clean up after the party. It is not easy to do big parties even small parties without a helper and with three active young kids. Honestly, I just can’t manage. So we rather book a good budget hotel for Christmas or New Year. Maybe we book reservations for a Christmas buffet or maybe a good Christmas or New Year Eve dinner would be just great. We still attend fun Christmas parties with our friends here over at their homes and exchange gifts days before Christmas.

2. Gifts

My hubby and I have already promised ourselves when we were still living in Singapore, in order to save, we decided to only give gifts to each other on our birthdays. So we don’t give gifts to each on Christmas, New Year, anniversaries and Valentines. So no gift-giving between my husband and I are already a given.

Previously, during Christmas, we would give one gift from Santa and one gift from us to our kids. A few Christmas before, I would add lots of little knick knack gifts for the kids. But I realised that kids received lots of gifts from our neighbours too for Christmas. Toys and stuff accumulate and we realised that they start taking their stuff for granted with the massive collection of toys and items. We decided a gift from Santa is enough for us. It is also economical. We prefer to expose them more to experiences instead as well as teach them the value of taking better care of the things given to them.

3. Christmas stocking filled with sweets

I used to enjoy this tradition so much. I love opening my shoebox filled with sweets. But now with my kids, we try to minimise their sugar consumption. We often keep the socks away from them and give them their sweets sparingly throughout the weeks. It would literally take months before they can finish their stocks. Plus we already have a stock of chocolates in our fridge which we eat occasionally for dessert. So we thought we get rid of the stockings filing with sweets because it is totally encourage sugar addiction. They barely even realised they didn’t get it from Santa.

4. Opening presents on Christmas Eve

In our household when I was young, we often open gifts on Christmas Eve but now with my kids, my hubby suggested that the kids open their gifts when they wake up in the morning of Christmas. It makes the kids excited for the morning of Christmas.

5. Twelve fruits for the New Year

We don’t buy 12 fruits for New Year for abundance. It seems like a superstitious practice. I rather pray and work for abundance & prosperity for the New Year rather than relying on fruits for my luck.

Another practice we will probably stop for New Year are firecrackers and massive sparklers. Here in Oman and before in Singapore, we never do it because it is prohibited. But if we are in the Philippines, I would like those firecrackers too because it is quite unsafe.

So there you have it, the 5 traditions we stopped doing during Christmas and New Year. Do you have traditions you decided to stopped too?

Some Christmas tradition I am keeping is attending mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ though I do it online now. I also want next time to buy a cake for Christmas for Jesus’ birthday and sing a Happy Birthday song with the kids. For New Year, I still do my New Year’s resolution, of course. It is one of my favourite traditions of all time.