Taiwan Excellence believes that Filipinos are among those who throw the best parties during the Christmas season, where the holiday season is celebrated at its longest in this part of the world.

And Taiwan Excellence, which honors the most innovative and value-added products produced by leading companies in Taiwan, believes that every Christmas party in the Philippines deserve to be thrown in the best and most excellent manner to make it truly memorable.

To celebrate this, Taiwan Excellence introduces a holiday contest called “A Dasurved Christmas Party,” where Filipinos can win a Christmas Party package worth P10,000 so they can celebrate all day long.

“A Dasurved Christmas Party” is open to various groups of Filipinos such as families, blood relatives, office mates, close friends, or even groups of individuals that possess a strong bond with each other.

To join “A Dasurved Christmas Party,” simply “Like” and “Follow” Taiwan Excellence’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

In order to win the Christmas Party Package, simply answer the question “Why do you deserve a holiday celebration worth Php 10,000?” and explain why your group deserves to win the Christmas Party Package and have some Christmas fun. Your comment will serve as your entry to the contest.

More importantly, do not forget to include the correct contest hashtags #ADasurvedChristmasParty, #TheBestMadeInTaiwan, and #TaiwanExcellencePH in your comment. Comments with incorrect hashtags will be declared invalid and will not be counted.

The contest is open for posting of entries until December 7, 2023. A total of Three (3) winners will be chosen to win the Christmas Party Package.

For more details, check out the link to the official post here: https://bit.ly/DasurvMagChristmaswithTE

 

How am I now? Am I still okay? Is my personality still intact? It's very hard to explain and to share what I've been through these past few years. I am ready to share this with my readers, (I need to take a very deep breath!) Maybe yes or maybe not? But I need to, for me to see my life as a very beautiful one. I'm always locked on my past that I want to forget. I need to do this, I need to bring it out (oh wait, I need to shout out first so that it will give me the strength to continue to tell my story) go shout! Wahhhhhhh! Yes, I need to write it down so that it will be my opening door to clear my mind.

I have 2 sons, that I need to consider every time I make a decision. But in my situation at that time, I need to decide, for my family's sake. But, how? 

Before this pandemic, I have a rough relationship with my husband. The struggling situation for us as a family. Then I remember the saying at that moment, "Ang pag-aasawa ay hindi parang kaning mainit na kapag sinubo mo at napaso ka eh pwede mo itong iluwa." (Marriage is not like new cook rice that you can spit it because it's hot.) Not at all! It is very hard for me, emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially, I'm lost!

When we decided to get married, we have a job. I told my husband from the beginning that, I will work, I told him that I will not stop working even if we have a baby because we have a lot of dreams to achieve. But things change! I resigned from my first Job (which is by the way going on my 6th year in the company.) because I need to have a baby. After all, it has been two (2) years already that we've been together. I remember when I heard, even though it was brought out as a joke, still it hurts. They said that they're going to bring me back to my family because I couldn't bear a child at that time. That was the reason why I resigned, to get pregnant. It's hard for me to get pregnant because I'm a workaholic. And wish came true, I gave birth to my eldest son. I did sacrifice for my family. 

Another sacrifice that I made for my family was to give up my work again, but this time because of my 2nd child, who was diagnosed with mild ADHD. He needs me, no one will stay as Yaya for my kids because the youngest son is very hyper. That's another big decision I made for my family. I remember one of my bosses said that I could be promoted if I only stayed in the company, but my son needs me. Only a mother can indeed do so many sacrifices, patience, and love for their kids. This is indeed another sacrifice for my family.

It is very hard for us that only one working, it's very hard, though there are some writing gigs and bloggers events, still, it's hard to survive. Until my husband resigned from his work due to health conditions at that time and he needs to help his mother in taking care of his bedridden father. That was really hard! Days, weeks, months passed by, everyday expenses, and even our savings were already used for the daily needs. There are times that we experienced having our bank balance below maintaining, that most of the time were penalized by the bank. "Isang kahig, isang tuka," (literal translation is one scratch, one peck) I don't know what's the more equivalent phrase for this but we were totally at the bottom. No source of income, few writing gigs, and blogging events. Bills piled up, expenses rises and no enough food. I just cried in one corner questioning myself, why is this happening to us? 

We did not come from a rich family, we graduated from college because of a scholarship grant, that's why we know the feeling of living a poor life. We've been here with our parents before, but why my kids need to experience it also. I don't want my kids to experience it. Both our families helped us with our food and bills, but that's not enough, of course, because they have their own family to take care of as well until our electricity was cut off. If you think that it's an MMK story, think again because there's more. I decided that we should have separate lives. Maybe, if we can go with our lives separately and if we are not together we can do something. We applied for a job but still, we can't get a job. Maybe we are not meant to each other, we need to have a different path so that we can achieve better lives. But it's hard to decide because we have 2 sons, but I need to decide because I'm so lost, I don't know what to do. I decided to bring my kids to my parent's house, and stay there a the time being while I look for a job. Little by little, it turned out that we are leaning toward separation. I already had given up! 

Pandemic came! Oops, the decision has changed! That time the only quotable quotes that you can see on social media are...

"You don't need to be rich to survive in this pandemic era, because the enemy is a virus that you can't see. Even if you are the richest person in the world, when you contracted the covid and it's severe, money can't do anything. You need to fight the Covid, you need to be healthy all the time."

"Life is so short" give your best time with your family together. Then suddenly do I need to pursue my decision to live separately from my husband? What will happen to our lives, "bawal lumabas" (we're not allowed to go out), it's hard to go around applying for a job, the economy down. How we will survive in this situation?

"When it rains, it pours," that's what they say! There was so much help or Ayuda that we got. Yes, for how many months we just stayed inside our house together with my husband and my kids, we were able to survive. We survive from the everyday food and other necessities, but the bills, accumulated to almost a 1 year. We can't pay our bills especially the electricity. The good thing about it that the electricity wasn't cut off. (til now, we still have six unpaid months of electricity bills for the year 2020), that's because we don't have work yet. We don't have a fixed income. Few writing gigs, and minimal events through zoom, are still a big help for us like the food and other loots. At the back of my mind, I need to set aside our relationship problem, we need to be strong for our family to survive on this pandemic. 

I don't know if it's a wake-up call or God's way for us to survive with our lost relationship, that's for our kids. Our relationship gets tight because we need to help each other to survive this pandemic.

I am just thinking that maybe we need to be in that situation to make our relationship strong and we need to consider a lot of our kids in every decision. We fight for our lives that's why we need to survive. Because of this, we accept different freelance works such as writing gigs, events, and online stores. I sell anything online just for us to survive. As we do everything just to survive with our daily lives neither of us noticed that our relationship as a couple, is also surviving. 

God works and on perfect timing! We all just need to wait the right time to happen. It will come and you'll get through all the hardships in life. Just hold on and don't give up! Thank God, as I am writing this, we received good news. Hubby got a call and he's now working again. We will have a fixed income again. Thank God! I am also hoping to work as well so that we can help each other and have a happy life again.

We have a lot of dreams and it was stopped because of the problems came to our life. This time, even there's still the pandemic, we hope we can achieve it one at a time. it was a roller coaster life. In one of our conversations, we were actually talking about when can we go and travel again. We don't have many travels, we only have here in the Philippines. We've been to Baguio, Batangas, and Palawan that was when we were still two, but now, our family travel was only in Marinduque. As of now, it may be hard to admit, but we haven't been to Boracay. Hopefully, if things are well okay to travel and it is safe our family can go to Boracay! I was hoping that I can use my #DateWithMyBoys in Boracay! 

It's really nice to dream things, especially if you have gone through a whirling storm in your life. It makes you even stronger and ready to face any problem in life, especially if it is for the family. I always put my family first and it is always one of my big things to consider when making decisions. Also, don't give up, you, we need to survive!

I hope that my untold survival story (especially to my friends who knows me) can give enlightenment, mostly to those people who are experiencing the same thing as mine. And thank you for letting me share this kind of story. I can now exhale, no more worries, no more emotional pain! I have kept it long enough and I hope this can give me peace of mind. 

This story is an entry to ComCo Southeast Asia's "Write to Ignite Blogging Project Season 2: Dear Survivor". The initiative continues to respond to the need of our times, as every story comes a long way during this period of crisis. The initiative aims to pull and collate powerful stories from the Philippine blogging communities to inspire the nation to rise and move forward amidst the difficult situation. The "Write to Ignite Blogging Project" Season 2 is made possible by ComCo Southeast Asia, with Eastern Communications and Jobstreet as co-presenters, and with Air Asia and Xiaomi as major sponsors.

My Life? How’s my life? Am I still okay?

I don’t know how to start this story just like not knowing what will happen next in this kind of life that I have been experiencing the latest trend in the whole world, The Pandemic!

Oh well, I guess, through this story, it will help me overcome the feeling of being scared. Am I frightened? Yes, I am, and not only for myself but for my kids, for my family, relatives, friends, and the whole world! What will happen next to us?!



It is just a community quarantine, right? But what happens next? The ECQ, EECQ, MECQ, and now GCQ, then the next day MGCQ! And because of the so-called “NCOV,” now “Covid-19,” we are quarantined! These abbreviations are new to us, and because of that, the world is now into the “New Normal”!

For the last three (3) months of the quarantine period, I run through my social media accounts, particularly my FB post and I can say that I am a different person now, with a new life, a new normal life! Do I need to be happy and accept it with open arms? Probably yes or maybe not! But I want to shout and tell God that I want my old life back! But it's a big NO! Whispering at the back of my mind, it's a big, big NO!



My new Normal Life, stay at home if you want to be safe, wear a mask if you’re going out, washing of hands or disinfecting with alcohol is now a must! Helping each other by giving some goods, (thankful that from the start of quarantine till now I am not buying rice, yet).

I missed my mom so much, from visiting her once a week together with my kids to don’t know when we will meet again and to have a bonding moment for the whole family.

My nephew from Laguna who always stays with us every Christmas and Summer vacation won't be able to come to us. Now, we always have a video call in our family, as in every day.

As for those who celebrated their birthdays we made sure to have video greetings for them. Since we couldn't celebrate together. I wonder when are we going to have a memorable bonding ever in our lives?
My New Work-Life, from attending events from North to South, to attending press conferences and events via zoom or other online platforms. This is our virtual work-life. We need more extra income to cope up with the expenses that we have.



Right now, I am a reseller of different products. From sweets 'kakanin' to face mask products. I also join contests on social media, like the FB live of Gabing Gabing Na Vice that will have viewers a chance to win cash prizes. I was hoping to win that time, so I can buy supplies for us. Even selling Ice to our neighbors for additional income. I do need additional income. I am a fulltime Mom of my 2 kids. Though I'm at home, I still do some extra income even during the quarantine period. Yes, I'm risking my health and even my family, but what should I do, I need to do it because I am a Mom!

The boring life of my kids, Yeah! My youngest son always says that he is already bored, while my eldest son asks when are we going out Mom? Well, I need to ensure that they won't get bored and as much as possible for them to still be lively and active. But because of the gadgets, phones and the laptop, it gave them a more sedentary activity. And because they are stuck in the four (4) corners of the house, I couldn't keep them off with the gadgets.

 With this, my hubby and I would always have an activity for them from time to time, like a shoot or a video for my youngest son's YouTube channel, the Playfull Gelo, where he does the cooking, unboxing and even FB live.

A big thanks to our Church, for having the annual Vacation Church School, which they did online due to the virus. For two (2) weeks they were so busy.






We even did a Poster making contest in tribute to the frontliners for them just to keep them busy and off with the gadgets.






Aside from my kids, my nephew in Laguna is also busy with his project with the help of my hubby, a video thanking the frontliners in risking their lives for us.

These things are what we did just to let the kids overcome that boredom because of this new normal life!

This is my life, my new normal life rather our new normal life! Let us accept the fact that we are born to experience a world where the only constant is change. The world that gives us failures and hopes, the world that gives us a colorful and wonderful life!


Hey, we are Filipinos, right? We are born to be strong and fight for our lives! Fight! Fight! Fight! Let us all tap our shoulder because we are still alive and be thankful enough that we are all heroes of our family, we did it and we are still doing our best to cross this kind of circumstances as we go through to a better life ahead.


I guess God reminds us all that we are tough whatever situations and He is just beside us. Yeah! My kids can now talk to God and tell Him what is really in their hearts. Let us all embrace the fact that we are now in our new normal life! I want to tell this phrase to all Filipinos in Tagalog! "Kaya Natin To!"

This story is an entry to ComCo Southeast Asia's "Write to Ignite Blogging Project". The initiative is a response to the need of our times, as every story comes a long way during this period of crisis. Igniting and championing the human spirit, "Write to Ignite blog Project" aims to pull and collate powerful stories from the Philippine blogging communities to inspire the nation to rise and move forward amidst the difficult situation. This project is made possible by ComCo Souteast Asia, co-presented Eastern Communications and sponsored by Electrolux, Jobstreet and Teleperformance.