Post-Christmas Post
My Christmas Day and "Boxing Day" were spent with both sides of the family! I guess it really is the season for reconnecting and all.
Woke up late on Christmas Day and bummed around on the computer, thinking that the guests would arrive after lunch. They started arriving exactly around noon and I had to rush down for a quick lunch and shower, hurr. Delayed going down because I am the hugest awkward turtle at family parties ever before finally being ushered down. "Mingled" (which, in awkward turtle speak, means "sat down somewhere relatively populated with people and watched television while clutching the camera like a lifeline") and occasionally escaped upstairs.
The party finally started when the last of my father's side arrived and there was a short thanksgiving program before the gift giving! This year's was especially remarkable in that it might be my last time to receive aguinaldo, depending on whether or not I start working by this time next year. My eldest cousin there, who had started working early this year, gave out his first round of aguinaldo and was coerced into giving up one of his. It was like an omen for me. Kinda makes further studies more tempting, haha.
Also my godchildren recognized me, ack! Still had to rely on parents for aguinaldo. Huhuhu when I get a job, I promise I'll be more doting. ;_;
Then a prerequisite dance. Luckily, I am both old enough to refuse and be taken seriously, and there were little kids around who were more than happy to dance in our stead. And games! Nearly skinned my knees and was crushed under the weight of my cousin during the paluan ng palayok, and was content to stay behind and watch and take pictures for the rest of the time. Until someone bumped into the lens and smashed the camera against my face. I retired after that.
The next day, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5 AM (on a vacation! after Christmas Day!) to head to Bataan for the reunion on my mother's side of the family. They'd hired out a covered court and two villas at a resort, and it was pretty nice. Declined to swim out of laziness to bring swimming clothes - it became pretty cold towards the late afternoon, anyway.
The reunion was pretty fun. We all had to wear color-coordinated shirts depending on which branch of the family we came from, and sing Christmas songs and play games and stuff. My older cousins danced to "Baby", and I won quite a few prizes (not to mention collected a pretty generous collective aguinaldo, keke).
The thing about my mother's side of the family is that, unlike my father's side where most of my cousins are around my age, only a few of my cousins are my age. Most of them are older and are married with children - I'm attending my cousin's wedding early next year - so sometimes I'm closer to my first cousins once removed (yes, I had to Google the term because it bothered me so much), and it's still a bit of a challenge to remember to call my cousins "Ate" and "Kuya" instead of "Tita" and "Tito".
Not to mention I'm the godmother of three of my cousins' children. I entered a villa to use the restroom and found all three of my godchildren there with their mothers, haha. They are the most adorable little girls in the world and I love them and they are so cute it makes my heart burst into little pieces.
Dozed off on the way home, listening to my father tell a story about my cousins' husbands having a hard time with timing their drinking sessions. Woke up about half an hour later to hear him tell the exact same story.
~ Seiko-chan
Woke up late on Christmas Day and bummed around on the computer, thinking that the guests would arrive after lunch. They started arriving exactly around noon and I had to rush down for a quick lunch and shower, hurr. Delayed going down because I am the hugest awkward turtle at family parties ever before finally being ushered down. "Mingled" (which, in awkward turtle speak, means "sat down somewhere relatively populated with people and watched television while clutching the camera like a lifeline") and occasionally escaped upstairs.
The party finally started when the last of my father's side arrived and there was a short thanksgiving program before the gift giving! This year's was especially remarkable in that it might be my last time to receive aguinaldo, depending on whether or not I start working by this time next year. My eldest cousin there, who had started working early this year, gave out his first round of aguinaldo and was coerced into giving up one of his. It was like an omen for me. Kinda makes further studies more tempting, haha.
Also my godchildren recognized me, ack! Still had to rely on parents for aguinaldo. Huhuhu when I get a job, I promise I'll be more doting. ;_;
Then a prerequisite dance. Luckily, I am both old enough to refuse and be taken seriously, and there were little kids around who were more than happy to dance in our stead. And games! Nearly skinned my knees and was crushed under the weight of my cousin during the paluan ng palayok, and was content to stay behind and watch and take pictures for the rest of the time. Until someone bumped into the lens and smashed the camera against my face. I retired after that.
The next day, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5 AM (on a vacation! after Christmas Day!) to head to Bataan for the reunion on my mother's side of the family. They'd hired out a covered court and two villas at a resort, and it was pretty nice. Declined to swim out of laziness to bring swimming clothes - it became pretty cold towards the late afternoon, anyway.
The reunion was pretty fun. We all had to wear color-coordinated shirts depending on which branch of the family we came from, and sing Christmas songs and play games and stuff. My older cousins danced to "Baby", and I won quite a few prizes (not to mention collected a pretty generous collective aguinaldo, keke).
The thing about my mother's side of the family is that, unlike my father's side where most of my cousins are around my age, only a few of my cousins are my age. Most of them are older and are married with children - I'm attending my cousin's wedding early next year - so sometimes I'm closer to my first cousins once removed (yes, I had to Google the term because it bothered me so much), and it's still a bit of a challenge to remember to call my cousins "Ate" and "Kuya" instead of "Tita" and "Tito".
Not to mention I'm the godmother of three of my cousins' children. I entered a villa to use the restroom and found all three of my godchildren there with their mothers, haha. They are the most adorable little girls in the world and I love them and they are so cute it makes my heart burst into little pieces.
Dozed off on the way home, listening to my father tell a story about my cousins' husbands having a hard time with timing their drinking sessions. Woke up about half an hour later to hear him tell the exact same story.
~ Seiko-chan