Chill day, Sunday!

One of the key to a happy and strong relationship within family is quality time. Or family time, as we call it. Having family time helps family to create a stronger and tighter bond making them more connected, open and closer to each other.

These days, I know a lot of families who couldn't even make time to eat together. To gather together and to just talk to each other. And even if they are together, they have gadgets that are bringing them to another world instead of spending some precious time with their family.

Before, I hate that we have rules like whatever we are doing or no matter how tired we are, we have to get up and show up on our dining table for dinner. There is also no phone or any gadgets allowed on our home while eating and was not really fond of it before but now, I already realized how great is that practice that was implied to me since I was young.

We are also busy people in the family and we barely eat breakfast and lunch together. But dinner is non-negotiable. Since at night, everyone is already at home so as I have mentioned, whatever remaining tasks that we have to do, we have to forget that for a while to eat dinner together as family. And because of that, we were always able to talk and somehow catch up with each other as we have our casual and usual conversation over dinner. Through that practice, we were able to manage open communication within our home.

Aside from dinner as family time, of course there are also special days wherein we will cook special foods, dine out on a restaurant, and sometimes, go out of town. It doesn't happen very often but still, we make sure to do it and insert it on our busy schedule because family time is non-negotiable, it is required in a family, at least on our family, it is.

Anyway, too much for an introduction, this is just about me sharing this chill day we had earlier. It was such a simple day going to the mall, playing at the arcade, and eating together. Simple activities with the most precious people, indeed, it was such a time well spent.

Last Saturday night, I was informed by my brother that we will be going to the mall the next day so that the kids can play at the arcade. Late notice yeah? Well, it's usually like that with us. Not much planning needed, when we say we'll go, then we'll go.

I was quite excited of course since it has been a long time since I went to the mall. And look at that, it's just fine going since it is not really that crowded so there are lesser interaction with other people.

As I have said, the goal is to really go to the arcade so we go there directly as soon as we go to the mall. Kuya bought the tokens and of course, we played. The first arcade that we went to was quite small so after a while, Kuya told us to use all our remaining tokens since he saw a bigger arcade where we could play.

Moving on to the next location, we found an arcade more than 2 times bigger than the first one we went to. And next to that arcade is a playing area for kids where they can pay for a rent and stay there for a minimum of 1hr. It was Php220 per hour I think, if I remember it correctly. The area was wide and there were a lot of attractions so I think, it is worth its price and my nephew really did enjoy too so indeed, it was worth it.

Meanwhile, as my 5 year old nephew enjoyed himself on the playing area, me, my 16 year old nephew and 12 year old niece enjoyed ourselves on the arcade beside it. Tokens are still sponsored by their dad, of course. So we tried almost all the game in the arcade that interests us until we run out of token. We did try our best to win tokens too in exchange with some prizes and after playing there for an hour, we got 1958 tickets in total. Too bad, it isn't enough to win major prizes since we were only there for a short period of time but good news! The tickets are enough to get us foods for our snacks. We got 4 soda in can, 4 biscuits, chips, and candies. That's already more than enough too since we were just really aiming for the soda. LOL

And here comes the exciting part. This is our dinner for today's video. LOL

We dine out at Shakey's and ordered pizza, of course. We also got chicken, mojos and 2 platter of pasta. We are only 7 so these foods are more than enough. We had the remaining foods to go so I got some snacks here as I write this one. Hehe

Lastly, here's a photo dump of myself 'coz I feel like sharing it. LOL

For the first photo, I didn't know my 5 year old nephew captured it. I just saw it on my gallery as we went home.

The second one is the mandatory mirror selfie at the comfort room. LOL. Hello to those who also sometimes take mirror selfies on comfort rooms!

The last one is the look of someone who is awake for 20-21 hours a day and is only sleeping for 3-4 hours a day. Geez. Been too busy these past weeks and I am really sleep deprived. Eye bags is real. LOL

All in all, I had such fun time with the family. It was just a simple day doing simple activities but it became extra special because of the people I am with and the bond I created with them.

To all families out there, I hope that you will also able to practice family time and for those who doesn't have that really good relationship with their family, I hope and pray for your reconciliation.

Thank you so much for reading this far. God bless your whole family!

And here's a reminder for y'all: