Christmas Cheers!

 

 

Our annual family Christmas and New Year greeting cards shoot!

what happened last year - thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is primarily a very American holiday, but having been raised in a city in the Philippines where American Baptist missionaries took good roots, we have been celebrating it all our lives. And besides, thanksgiving is such a universal celebration these days...


So it's only natural that we prepped up our Cambodian home for this holiday. I had an event organized for Guerlain Paris the month before so, I ended up with tons of scrap metal that I turned into two outdoor lounges.



We made and screen printed special throw pillows for the dinner with the names of our guests and guests-to-be (Obama and Hillary were too busy that evening)


We set our table with sculptures from Bill Bensley's Fantastical Creatures Exhibit and some bounty from the harvest (harvest at the supermarket, that is). We also made special placemats and coasters which stated things we were thankful for...



By dusk, the al fresco corner of the house was ready and so was dinner!


Me, my wife Faith, Don, Sheree (fresh from Newcastle, flown in especially for the Wanderlust fashion shoot) American authors Shannon and Jason and of course, Liz!

Our menu included stuffed chicken (turkey was too darn hard to find in Cambodia!), roast potatoes, buttered peas and veggies, battered fish, prawn cakes, pasta, stuffed pumpkin dessert, cream cheese cake, etc... Jason and Shannon brought a super cool drink that they concocted themselves!


Inside, we had our tree set up too for the holidays...


Guests got to bring their pillows as souvenirs!


A few days later, we had dinner with some new friends... Max, who's Vietnamese-French, Rachel, from the US, who's opening a boutique next door to us at the Alley West and Ruben from Mexico.


We definitely love welcoming friends to our home!

louis & vuitton

For Christmas, we got Freedom two new pups to play with. Last year, our Labrador Chocky, mysteriously disappeared in our front yard and our son was devastated.


So we got him these cuddly little poodles... Louis and Vuitton. Somehow, they remind us of the colors of the monogrammed classic luggage... and they're French, hence the name. But for some strange reason, they remind me so much too of ewoks from Star Wars. Maybe we should have called them Leia and Luke instead? HHmmm...


Vuitton's a girl and is the darker one - almost like the color of the monogrammed canvas. She's the reserved, behaved and elegantly calm pup among the two. She's almost very lady-like... might be Marie Antoinette on her past life. Yes, she likes her hair brushed and loves cake too.


Louis, the lighter shaded pup, on the other hand is mischievous, fretfully friendly and such an "Energizer Bunny".He can end up covering himself in mud in no time. He is definitely Freedom's favorite.


He is also such a flirt. On parties, he'd flaunt his cuteness to guests who couldn't resist his natural French charm. Our friend Kimberly from New York, just couldn't help it!


And my sister Grace acted like their adopted mom during her holiday here.

Our cat, Cartier was truly jealous!

family portraits

Our not-so-little boy came home to Cambodia last month with Nanie, my mom and my sister and made our holidays the best we've ever had. It was our first Christmas and New Year altogether so we had to do our portraits!


My son, Freedom, all grown up!


The two of us doing a Lacoste ad!


Family snaps

Our Family! From left: my mom Love, my sister Love Grace, Don - the high priest of Cambodian avant garde fashion, my wife Faith, our son Freedom and Nanie.

11 reasons why i havent blogged in ages

1.Did photography work for a New Zealand Magazine

I was commissioned by a Kiwi Magazine in Auckland to shoot Dean Williams, who used to be a big media personality in New Zealand before moving to Cambodia to open a funky cocktail bar called Miss Wong.






2.Sent my son to school for the first time

Yup, he’s officially a student at the International School of Siem Reap as we’ve been trying to convince him for the longest time that he is NOT Yet an adult.




3.We’re building a new store

We’re expanding and we’ve just opened a new store at the Alley West called POETRY. It’s a total lifestyle experience offering Don’s clothes, vintage finds, original jewelry from designer friends like Jor-el and Tita Jaki all the way from Iloilo, Philippines and a gallery for my work on “words” as well as for other up and coming artists based in Cambodia and the world over.








4.Opened up a solo exhibition at the Angkor National Museum

The Saffron Spirit makes its way to the Angkor National Museum alongside the kingdom’s ancient treasures. I couldn’t have been more thrilled!




5.Prepared for a trip home

Spent two weeks in Iloilo picking up pieces of my childhood memories and rebuilding our home after the devastating flood last year. Most of our family pictures were gone and my paintings and artworks have vanished into oblivion, but all is definitely not lost…



My mom, lost 90% of her garend and plants which is her source of life and income... but she has moved on quite well....




We had a reunion with relatives on my mom's side so we are slowly rebuilding our connections and lost memories.... all the lost pictures, books and what nots would have to be relished again... on a new perspective....


6.Turned another year older in Cambodia

Celebrated my 31st year of existence on this planet with family and friends. I actually shared the birthday week with Vincent, one of my photographers and good New Yorker friend Elizabeth Kiester.




7.Am being featured in a magazine with two great friends

Fah Thai Magazine, Bangkok Airways’ inflight magazine, is doing a feature on me, Don, and Elizabeth on our efforts to make Siem Reap the next best fashion destination in the planet. Hehehee.


8.Did a load of wedding shoots and temple shoots

Work work work. Need I say more?


9.I’m helping redesign the National Museum in Phnom Penh

One of the projects I’m really looking forward to do! Got in through the help of American friends John and Narisa McDermott!


10.Did a Suitcase Sale

One of the cool stuffs we’re doing on the Alley West…


11.Prepared for my sister’s graduation

After 4 years of gruelling tuition payments, and other miscellaneous out-of-this-planet expenses, my sister Love Grace has finally finished her Nursing degree...

The ceremony in itself was more suffering that you could bear than 4 years of school combined... the graduation lasted almost 7 hours and the keynote speaker spoke for more than 2 hours! To top it off, there were almost 500 nursing graduates alone! There were around 300 honor graduates (cum laudes, summa cum laudes and magna cum laudes)... the reddeming point is that my sister got an award for outstanding nursing graduate from the Baptist Church Organization in Ohio. She also got a loyalty medal for going to the same university from kindergarten.

I think they ought to give awards too for those who endured the entire ceremony...

obama, black outs and fairytale endings...

It's just one of those days again...

...when a great moment in history is unfolding and you are there, stuck on the couch, contemplating how unfair life is because there is a massive black out in the entire neighborhood. You have an entire office and workshop to run and there is nothing you can do as you are on the mercy of the electrical current. Your 3 year old son is complaining because there is no tv and airconditioning in the house. Your fridge is losing ice fast and its filled to the brim with food that is turning stale fast! You have a mountain of things to print, lay-outs to finish and client deadlines to beat - but sadly, their destinies are all connected to the plug. Welcome to the wonderful world of black outs in Cambodia...



It's already 10 pm. We've just gone back from the mall to get dinner as it's almost impossible to do anything in a house which is darker than a cave. No power still. Then I remembered that it's the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama - a momentous new chapter in world history. And our tv is dead.

So with my family in tow, we packed our bags and searched the inner folds of Siem Reap for a decent guest house with air conditioning and cable tv. We thought of the $8 a night room Olive has found while searching last weekend for a place her friends from Vietnam could stay... or perhaps the dingy old annex guesthouse extension in the hotel where I used to work... or perhaps we could just camp out in the park in front of Raffles (it's cold anyway, so a blanket would be enough)...


Then as we thought that our lives are on the road to the pits, we found the answer staring us right in our faces as we drove down Achamean Street and Sivutha Boulevard - Hotel de la Paix.


A shining beacon of hope amid the dead of winter (I am quoting Obama's speech already), everyone's favorite hotel is a client of mine and owes me a couple of night stays for several posters I did for them. One of them was for the hotel's coverage of the Obama-McCain presidential race last November (which is strangely a coincidence).


So we tried our luck and asked at the front office if we could avail of our barter agreement. It worked, so we were quickly hushed into our gorgeous Bill Bensley-designed room.


So while several hundred thousands were waiting at the National Mall in Washington DC on the unbearable cold of winter on January 20 to witness history unfold, we watched it in the warmth of 300 count Egyptian cotton sheets in a lusciously indulgent hotel room for free.

Thank God for black-outs.

year ender

Although the holidays wasn't as crazy as last year, it was still crazy nonetheless. I was juggling several shoots and last minute design works but was able to keep myself free for Christmas eve to prepare for a "white Christmas" feast.


I was especially inspired since we renovated and repainted the kitchen firetruck red and my wife came back from Australia with a treasure trove of holiday recipes and inspirations - thanks to Donna Hay!


Since everybody else was working on Christmas eve, I was left alone with Nanie and Olive (my office manager) to conquer the kitchen. We were able to whip up a little Grilled Salmon, Ham with Spicy Mango Confit, Steamed Garlic Scallops, Green Noodles with Seafood Brisket, Lentil Soup, Buttered Veggies (turned out to be a disaster but Don rescued it from oblivion) and Raspberry Cake with Caramelized Fresh Berries on the side for dessert. For a little Filipino fare, Olive cooked her famous embutido and leche flan which was truly sinful!


While waiting for everybody to come, we had some chardonnay, blue cheese and crackers which Freedom tried with his chocolate Smarties!


The gang after the feast... we gave our gifts at the struck of midnight. Freedom got a mini drum set (our sleep will never be the same again) among many other things while I got a travel folio and a full collection of Woody Allen films!


Come new year, it was just me, Olive, Don, Nanie and Freedom as everybody else had their own parties to go to, but by midnight, we were all together to greet 2009. The fireworks display was short, but the sight of hundreds of candles on paper balloons floating on air was a truly magical sight.

At 1 am, we were all shuttling our way between the street party at Pub Street, the revelry at Linga Bar and the live band at Cafe Central.

By 4:30, we were hungry as wolves from all the partying, so we went home to raid the fridge.


By 5:30, we made our way to Angkor Wat to catch the first sunrise of 2009. The freezing cold didn't deter us as we came prepared with our own thermos of coffee and tea! By now, the pack was now reduced to me, my wife, Olive and Don.


Then slowly, at around 6 am, a hazy blue sunlit sky made its way to the horizon... revealing Angkor Wat's distinct spires...


I have seen it a million times, but it is still a magical, exhilarating sight...

Happy New Year everyone!