Thought Bubbles...

musings, rantings, and what-have-you, about my own small part of the world, and my 'sometimes' not so-ordinary life...something to read and reflect on, and which hopefully will bring a smile to your face... :)

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Day '07








CHRISTMAS DAY!!! The kids already opened their gift from me and seeing their excitement at getting a Nintendo DS (to replace the one that was stolen), was well worth the money spent.

What they’re looking forward to now is the annual Christmas party of our clan at my aunt’s house, and the gifts their getting from their aunts, uncles, and grandaunts and granduncles (as opposed to “grandparents”). The kids’ grandparents (my mom and dad) are in the US, and the monthly care packages they send us have always been filled with goodies for the kids. One time it was baseball mitts and baseballs. Or board games. Or various handheld games (video or otherwise) like 20Q, Deal or No Deal, Magic 8 ball, etc. So really, it’s like it’s always Christmas Day for the kids when a big box from the US arrives.

For our annual Christmas party, the fiesta-like preparations resulted in a beautiful and mouthwatering spread of goodies such as kare kare, sauteed prawns, pork barbecue, imperial chicken, lumpiang shanghai, molo soup, baked macaroni, roast beef, baby back ribs, pancit luglog. Diet? What diet? Thoughts of slimming down flew out the window seeing the fabulous food on the dining table.

And for a dessert lover like me, I was in dessert heaven when I saw the chocolate marjolaine cake (which happens to be Patrick’s favorite), fruit salad, brownies, lychee pandan, and brazo de Mercedes. As I always say, “Dessert is the most important part of the meal. Yum yum. In fact, you could say that my “no-rice” diet for the past few days (4 days and counting!) is specifically so I could eat my share of dessert! Hehehe…

The kids spent most of the day playing wii. It was fun and funny watching them! Paolo and Patrick did well on the games, and that was not a surprise to me knowing how good they are at video games. Patrick did especially well in Wii bowling! hahaha! which reminds me, he really loves going bowling, and he wants to take it up as a sport so I told him we'll see about getting him bowling lessons next summer.

Take note of one of the pictures. Patrick is lying on the floor, near the Christmas tree. Patrick blurted out that he’d pretend that the Christmas tree was falling on him, so he takes the pose of lying on the floor and shouting “Saklolo”! My cousins laughed at loud at his antics and promptly took photos of him in that pose. I honestly don’t know how (or why) Patrick comes up with this stuff. I guess it’s his naturally funny side shining through. Always the life of the party. :)

All in all, it was a great day spent with family, with lots of fun and laughter. I just wish my parents were here to celebrate with us. They would have so enjoyed the celebration plus the fun times with the whole clan, and especially their two “apos”.