new year

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.

STARTING THE NEW YEAR AT ROYAL TULIP HOTEL MUSCAT

January 14, 2022 by Little Miss Honey

For New Year, we have earlier booked a stay in Hilton Garden Inn but last minute, we found a good deal to book in a new hotel we been meaning to book for a few occasions, but we never got to, which is at Royal Tulip Hotel. It is a fairly new hotel at Al Ghubrah Street, nearby Oman Avenues Mall. We were glad we decided to book there instead. It is located in a busy part of the city. The parking lot, however, is very small and narrow but it is forgivable with the beautiful amenities of the hotel.

The Christmas atmosphere was still very much alive in the hotel with its beautiful Christmas tree in their hotel lobby. They are also have a lovely gingerbread house in a corner. I love that their hotel lobby is so well-lit and spacious .

When we got to our room, we did our traditional family photo in our room. After we had several pictures, we checked out the room.

We were so impressed with the size of the room and the very space-saving fixtures they placed in the room – from the lights, to the drawers, TV and cabinets with such a budget-friendly price. There is a big desk, a large TV, a small refrigerator, a small sofa chair and large King-size bed. There is no balcony but it was fine. We love that the room already has complete utilities like the iron board & iron, blow dryer attached at the bathroom wall and complete toiletries unlike some hotel we recently stayed at, which required us to call them to ask for such things.

The bathroom has a small bathtub which makes the kids and I so happy. We love bathtubs and bubble baths! Though I realised now that the kids are growing, the kids and I couldn’t fit in the bathtub already. But the kids keep insisting that they want bathe and play in the tub together with their mommy. Besides the toilet, the bathroom has a bidet too. Quite impressive!

After fixing our stuff and resting for a bit, we went to Oman Avenues Mall to roam around and have snacks. We enjoyed the delicious coffee buns at Pappa Roti. We also bought some take out buns for our breakfast the next day. We headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before our New Year’s Eve dinner.

For dinner, we decided to go back again at D’Arcy’s Kitchen. It is located in the lively spot in Al Shatti Qurum near the beach. We were initially worried if we can get a parking spot because there was quite bit of traffic going there. But just like that, when we drove into the parking lot, there was car that drive off and we got a parking spot instantly. We were so lucky! Is that a good sign of our luck for 2022? I hope it is.

In the restaurant, we wanted to sit outdoors to enjoy the atmosphere. J ordered the Steak as usual. I tried their Stuffed Chicken and the kids got two orders of the kiddie pancake meal which they really enjoyed. What we also like in the restaurant was that they provided the kids some papers and coloured pencils for them to colour. The kids were busy colouring while waiting for our foods, sitting al fresco.

After a satisfying dinner, we strolled to the beach but slowly, it began to drizzle. Then eventually a downpour of rain. So we shortened our walk and headed back to our car and head back to the hotel to rest.

The next morning, I woke up a little earlier than everybody. So I got my new notebook I bought in Yoyoso and my trust Swarovski pink pen to bring with me behind the the curtains and made my gratitude for the Year 2021 and my goals for 2022. When I was done, my kids slowly woke up and had their Pappa Roti buns for breakfast with me.

I will share with you soon how I make my previous year’s gratitude list and my goals for the New Year. I hope you all have a lovely New Year celebration too.

Happy New Year everyone!

Royal Tulip Hotel

Address: Al Marafah Street, Way No. 238, Al Ghoubra North103 Muscat, Oman

Booking: (+33) 1 70 98 61 18 / +968 2 2125555

Email Address: info@royaltulipmuscat.com