First New York Christmas

One thing that I realized this Christmas season is the bigness of Christmas in the Philippines. We have always celebrated this day extravagantly not only with our immediate family but with our cousins, Titas and Titos and the pamangkins and the lolos, lolas, apos and everyone else. It's so big that we get so busy catching up with our cousins, kidding arouond the babies and asking pamasko from our ninangs. We would also conduct games not only for the kids but for the kids-at-heart as well. There's the famous Newspaper Dance for mommies and daddies and creative-whatever-you-can-imagine relays for the kids. Although sometimes there were no prizes at stake, the idea of winning drives the competitiveness of everyone. That's why I would always be happy by the end of the day because of the people around the house making lots of noises: the crying babies, the loudness of the music from the player, the fighting kapatids, the laughter of the oldies and the inumans of the (young) adults. Everyone's busy doing what they usually do on family reunions celebrating Christmas, awaiting the main event of the party: exchanging gifts. This is the part when everyone makes a circle holding on to their gifts and one by one, someone sits on the center describing the person he picked before giving it to that person. This is my favorite part because sometimes, my cousins would make fun of the person they picked by imitating gestures which are completely outrageous.

For this year, now that I am in New York, it has gone on a complete turn. But although I was only with my immediate family, it was still good. It is also funny how Pinoys really try to generate families everywhere we go. The other day, we had our small "Christmas Party" with family friends here who are also Pinoys. We may not be actually related to one other but we try to generate that family feeling we miss from our country. It feels quite good when you know you have found a common denominator with someone else which Americans won't ever have.

Christmas 2007

So how did my first New York Christmas go? On Christmas Eve, we had our simple Noche Buena with the usual talks with the family and we also talked to our extended family through webcam. Fun. By morning, we celebrated mass then went to the Frye family for lunch, a family friend. Remember Jack? Ha ha. Then by afternoon, we watched Will Smith's I am Legend. Talk about suspense Christmas. Lol. And then dinner. Quite simple but still meaningful to me. I just missed Simbang Gabi because I remember always wanting to complete the nine masses every year but always missed.

Can I just share? Finally, our Internet's wireless. I can have internet in my pocket through iPod Touch. Wala lang. ;p

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!