Christmas Festivities 2006

Despite of a very wet Christmas day, we still had tons of fun. We had a quiet day on Christmas eve, we spent the day mostly catching up with family.

Early morning we talked to my family overseas for almost an hour. It was about 1AM of Dec 25 for them. They had quite a joyful Christmas this year, the two grandkids came to visit and stayed with them for the holiday season. I know Richie and Dina definitely missed the kids though since they stayed home to take advantage of the good flow of customers at their bakery. It's one of the few times in the year when you can actually earn extra money. Maybel and Allan, made it just in time to celebrate Christmas in Baguio as well. They were the "Santa Claus" again this year. You see back home, it is almost dreadful to be the "Santa" - Why? ... because everybody comes to you and asks for presents from you. It is pretty tough to refuse to give them because you know, most of them really doesn't have any other than the one coming from you. This year though, Pat and I pitched in to the fun and sent them a balikbayan box with wrapped presents too, we normally send cash. That added a bit to the excitement and festivity for them, of course just having the grandkids is probably enough to bring joy to the house.

In the afternoon we talked to Mom too, we exchanged some holiday cheers and greetings. At about 2:30PM we headed out for the Children's mass. Whew, the church was packed! It was nice to see so many children, all dressed up and some dressed up as shepherds, angels and as Joseph and Mary. After mass, we got ready and spent the rest of the evening with the neighbors.

At the neighbors, we enjoyed some great food and drinks. Yup, I had a sip of "alcohol" too this time. Jerry prepared "fuzzy navels" while Renee prepared some "cosmopolitans". I tried both and preferred the fuzzy navels, which resulted to me talking non sense for the rest of the night. Good thing, the pizza calmed me down a bit. It has become our tradition now to celebrate Christmas eve with our neighbors and a few other friends, we make our own homemade pizza and share a few drinks and the kids do a presentation toward the end. They normally do the "Chipmunk" skit. It has been three years now since we've kept the tradition going. Next year, might be different though, they are planning on spending the holidays in Australia so we'll see.

Anyway, I guess I talked the night away already...hmmm must be due to the fuzzy navels again!