Christmas this year was entirely different. It was the most non-traditional celebration of Christmas I’ve celebrated in my life. First of all, we did not have a tree this year. Usually, we’re the first to buy a fresh pine tree to give our house that Christmas feeling. We had decorations up, looking like Christmas exploded all over the place but something was still missing. By the time we had time to put up a tree, I felt that it was already too late so we ended up with no tree this year. Nonetheless, Christmas this year was special. 

My mother values family. She believes that our immediate family should always come first so on Friday, the day before Christmas Eve, we opened our gifts from each other. It was funny because right before we gave each other our gifts, everyone was in their own separate coves in the house, writing their Christmas cards and doing some last minute touch ups with their gifts. Although my niece is here, I love how my mom still makes me feel like the princess of the family despite the fact that I’m already 20 years old. She never fails to make me feel so special. I got my brown boots from my parents that I will exchange because I want a lighter brown, and a brown cross body bag from my sister. My niece gave me a little angel that lights up so that I will have an angel when I go back to school in January. I thought that was really sweet.

Different doesn’t always mean bad. We had a memorable Christmas this year. The 24th, things started to get crazy. We had to pack for our mini-vacay to the Poconos. My aunt came a little before 3 PM, thinking that we were all ready to go. Obviously we’re Filipino and run by Filipino time, being all last minute and what not. My mom is the girl scout of the entire family. I think she emptied our whole kitchen and managed to pack it in two cars. We finally left at 3:40, I drove, and got there before 7 PM. It was such a pain unloading the car. The cabin that we got was the furthest away from the parking lot. After stuffing my face with bulalo, I took a much needed nap. I was annoyed at the fact that I had to wake up an hour later because we had to go pick up my aunt from the Welcome Center because it was too dark and they didn’t know where the house was. Worst part, we had to unload their car but I did not help whatsoever. I was savoring the moment because I had suddenly smelled my favorite on my circle scarf and I was afraid that if I moved, it would go away. Even worse: 10 minutes later, my sister called and I had to go back to pick them up as well. They had 2 cars so it was double the unloading. This time I helped because I felt bad since I didn’t beforehand. After all the unpacking, let the fun begin!

As soon as my cousins came in, it was definitely chow time. I had bulalo again with them, along with some meatloaf and a spoonful of my cousin’s bomb ass kaldereta. The meal ended with my cousin imitating my uncle: “Ay naku, naku!” and “God bless!”, with the hand motions and everything! Kuya’s face was so ugly when he was laughing and that made me laugh even more. I hate to admit it, but I definitely peed a little because I was dying laughing, I couldn’t contain myself. Unfortunately, this all had to cease because we had to get ready for Midnight Mass.

If you were at Saint John’s Church in the Poke A Nose, yes, we were that obnoxious ass family, rolling four cars deep, talking as we were walking into our pews. The church was absolutely beautiful. I love the way they decorated the church. They had Christmas trees and lots of lights. I love all the poinsettias they had. I love how the nativity was the only thing lit up as soon as we entered, and it was positioned right in the middle so that no one could miss what the point of the whole celebration. It was so solemn. I love how I could concentrate and how I really prayed for the things I wanted to. At the end of Mass despite the cold, we hung around our cars for a bit, asking to be blessed by our elders with “mano po”. 

It’s funny because right before we left for church, we ate. As soon as we got back, the stoves were hot once again, preparing some food for us to chow down. We were debating whether to open gifts or not but the kids were sleeping so we decided to do it Christmas day. That in itself was weird. We usually go to Midnight Mass, have Noche Buena, and open gifts. But Christmas is really for the kids, so we held of. 

Since the kids were already sleeping, we, the big kids, decided to pull out the liquor and the poker chips and had some fun. By the end of the night, my uncle who continuously bought in, took home the pot. It was me versus him. I was already winning, saying “minamalit nyo ako eh” with my Kuya’s translation, “don’t small me.” He’s too funny. Well, going back to the game, the only reason why I agreed to betting all my chips was 1, it was my sister’s money, 2, I had two pair, and 3, it was past 5 AM. 

I love how our cabin was smaller compared to those we’ve rented in the past. It forced everyone to interact with each other. If you were in the kitchen, you would hear the conversations going on in the living room. There was never a time that anyone had the opportunity to feel left out. Even though the living area was small, we all refused to not sleep together. We all had to sleep downstairs together. Our plans, or lack of plans for our sleeping arrangement was way too funny. We decided to map out where everyone was going to sleep half drunk. We could not figure it out for the longest time. Kuya called the two full air beds, “twins”, causing even more confusion. At the end of the night, we had two full air mattresses, two long sofas, and one extremely short sofa full of sleeping, half drunk, and some completely drunk Evangelista’s.

The whole living room was awoken by my cousin’s endless cell phone ringing. It was very annoying. It was a combination of calls and her alarm clocks. At the same time, it was a good time to wake up because it was Christmas morning and we did not want to miss out on this special day. My cousin, @yennokz, made me some bangin’ ass coffee, so my day started off right. We all just laid there, trying to wake up, and debating on what to do for the day. After eating langonisa and egg white for breakfast, we still sat around. We didn’t know what to do. I think everyone was recovering from the drinking the night before.

We ended up going to the activity center and played in the arcade and took a dip in the pool. I was not happy because the water was cold. What I really enjoyed was the jacuzzi. Now that was very relaxing. We also played basketball, boys vs. girls. Just imagine, two big Puerto Ricans and my tiny Kuya who’s really good vs. unathletic me, my tiny sister, and three of my other cousins. I freaked out whenever the ball was passed to me. I accidentally passed the ball to @roxlovesshh, hitting the side of her face. We stopped at 11 to 0. We just spared ourselves the trouble. It was really a sight to see.

As soon as we got home, there was kare kare, lumpiang gulay and shanghai waiting for us. I opted to shower first though, thinking that there will be no hot water left and I could not shower like that. Since my niece was taking way too long in the shower, I took a bath with Ethan in the big red tub. He was probably wondering why a grown up was taking a bath with him. I got dressed and could not resist the urge to eat. I went downstairs, enjoyed the feast with my cousin, and went back upstairs to get ready. I loved my outfit; I was wearing a one shoulder red dress with black shoes.

I love getting ready with everyone. There were different stations taken care by @roxlovesshh, my cousin, and my sister and there was a make makeup station handled by yours truly. It was funny because my “tomboy” cousin was fixing my mom’s hair while everyone was belittling her but it turned out pretty good. There were so many laughs. It was so heartwarming to see everyone together, so close. After an hour or so, everyone was finally ready and let the photo shoot commence!

Everyone took pictures with their respective families. It’s hard organizing these types of things because someone is always missing. We had different photographers. My mom and my cousin made sure that everyone looked good in these pictures, too. Running around, calling for people, in a small place was making me break out a sweat. My straightened hair got messy while my eye liner ran but it was way too fun to even fix. After the pictures, we exchanged gifts. Everyone was so happy to distribute their gifts and receive some in return. After opening the presents, there was a mess of gift wrap, boxes, tissue, and boxes from toys. There were so many motorcycles, trains, drums, and Nerf guns. Guess that’s what we get for having three little boys!

It was wrong to have saved the best picture for last. Everyone was distracted by their gifts, especially the 3 boys. So I had to ask my mom to make everyone stop what they were doing. My sister and I improvised and made the camera high enough for it to capture everyone with our favorite friend, the timer. We love taking these group pictures. We had to take a couple. I had to tell everyone how to smile, or how to hold up their head. Everyone was getting anxious but the pictures came out nice so everyone was happy. The last shot had to be a funny face picture. It’s a tradition. We have to. It’s amusing because even the oldies participate. That’s one thing I love about my family. They’re so jolly. They’re down for anything. I can say that one thing that my family loves to do is laugh and make fun of each other. It’s us and I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world.

My sister’s friends came to visit, being that they live less than 5 minutes away. I decided to take a nap because I could not bare being up for that long with such an eventful day. @roxlovesshh and I were waiting for the table to clear up and in the meantime, we napped. She did not wait for me though because I fell right back asleep when she woke me up. I woke up later and I was so disoriented. I ate, changed into pajamas, and started to regret the nap I took because I knew that I was not going to fall asleep anytime soon. We just laid around and watched TV. My Kuya said he was hungry so @yennokz went to go get some kaldereta and this fruit custard cake thing that was so good! The fruits were fresh and the crust was so.. crusty. There’s no other way to describe it. Thinking we were about to go to sleep, my cousin found a DVD to Harry Potter, book 7, part 2. That was it. We were going to watch this to sleep. I really did thought we were going to sleep early since we were going to go skiing the next day, but I was mistaken. I fell asleep at 3 AM. I barely slept the whole weekend we were there.

We thought we were smart by silencing my cousin’s phone this time around. Nope. We were still shaken by her loud voice since she was looking for her phone. She was calling it and to her surprise did not hear it ringing so she woke us up, asking for her phone. It was 9 AM. It was also good that she shook the whole house because it was time to go skiing! We had breakfast, brushed our teeth and washed our face, and changed into our ski gear only to find out that it was 45 degrees out. We had to make a pitstop at Walmart. It was quite embarrassing walking in all bundled up while some people weren’t even wearing jackets. It was surprising that we left the place in half an hour. We went to go rent some skis and headed off to Camelback for the day.

I am not a pro skier. I started last January with my cousins. I got the hang of it towards the end of that trip but it’s difficult having to relearn it after a year. We went on the bunny slopes up until we ate. Their food was surprisingly good. I was upset because my gloves got given away… in exchange for a yamaka. My niece decided on not to go with us so thank God she gave me her gloves. Being the brave souls that we were, we unknowingly took the lift to the top of the mountain. We were on the lift for about 8-10 minutes and I was deathly afraid. We were debating which way to go and finally someone told us that going right was the easier of the two. That shit was not easy. I fell a couple times. See, it doesn’t hurt to fall when you’re there. It hurts after. But nonetheless, it was really fun even though it was scary at the same time. It was fun seeing each other wipe out and bust our asses. We ended walked some of it because it was really steep and I was not in the mood to fall again. When I decided that it was safe to go, I got my skis on and was so thankful to reach the bottom of the mountain in one piece, regardless of how many times I fell.

We rushed back to return our skis. I unfortunately had no shoes because my aunt took her car back home since snow tubing was closed for the kiddies. My Kuya took care of my ski rentals so I stayed in the car. I ran into the house with socks on and I was so eager to get out of my layers. 3 layers of pants, 5 layers of tops, and 2 pairs of socks. Changing into sweats, I feasted on shrimp with suka and patis. It was the best.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the same night. Right after the eating, we had to start loading the car. I did the bare minimum because I could feel the pain start creeping up from the skiing. Knowing that my mom was tired, I offered to drive. I love driving at night because it’s so much faster. It took an hour to get home, opposed to the hour and 20 minutes that it took to get there. The more annoying part was unloading the car at home. It was just my parents and I. Times like this I wished I had a younger sibling to order around. Anyway, my day ended off right with a quick hot shower just so I can talk to my favorite person.

Not only was Christmas different because we were away from home, but because I have someone special. Although we were not physically celebrating the holiday together, it was comforting to know that someone was thinking of me as soon as the midnight hit on December 25th. Yeah, it’s a little cheesy but it is what it is. I can’t explain what he does but he does it perfectly and for that I am so thankful. He is awesome and I can’t ask for more.

This Christmas, I feel like I have everything that I could possibly ask for. I was very thankful for the grades I got this semester. I worked very hard to earn them and now, I am happy with what I’m doing. My family is truly amazing. Every time I come home from these gay family gatherings, I turn into this mush ball. If someone were to fight one of them right after these gatherings, I would just go off more than I normally would. Fight to death for my family. Going back on track and certainly last but not the least, I have this person who gets me through my days. It gets a little difficult because we can’t see each other as much as we want to, but I’m so thankful for the little and big things that he does for me. I’m looking forward to what tomorrow lies for us, my favorite.

2011 is closing out with good memories and I hope to make more unforgettable ones in 2012! Happy Holidays! =)

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