christmas celebration

well, let's start with december 24. eventhough i promised myself that i would buy everything way before christmas, there i was trying to buy all the presents that i could for my family. i was not even thinking of buying stuff for friends anymore. well, first because i didn't have time and second, because i didn't have money. (i'm sure they understand *wink*). together with karla, faye and aljo, we were going around sm southmall trying to buy all our gifts plus what dad and mom would be needing for noche buena.

noche buena was a potluck dinner at the arco's place. we had five families altogether --- the endayas, the mendozas, the albises and of course, the marcoses and the arcos celebrating christmas. all families connected through the marasigan blood. :) we heard mass in hillsborough and then... noche buena! :) but the highlight of the evening was not the food but the exchanging of gifts. dad started off, being the oldest in the clan. and he picked... me! he handed me a package from bench that i put off opening until later. and then i had to give the gift to my baby... dad! talk about exchange gifts! :) another highlight for me was when tito ronnie was handing out his gift. he asked for five volunteers and since i was nearest and he was still lacking one, i joined in. he wanted the volunteers to guess who his baby was and whoever got the correct answer would win P500! his first clue was that his baby was a part of the family (meaning, not any of our helpers). then he said that his baby was very talented. i blurted out the first person that came to mind.. faye! then he said that his baby was a bunso (youngest). that made me think because faye was not our bunso though she was the youngest girl. his last clue was that his baby was still studying. venisse guessed via --- and via would fit those descriptions 100%. but then tita baby said that there was a hitch in tito ronnie's clues... and then tito ronnie announced that it was indeed faye and that i won the P500! :) wooohoooo!!!

after the exchanging of gifts for the monito-monita, we proceeded to give gifts to everyone. i got a shirt for dad, a blouse for mom, a bag for karla, a shirt from artwork for faye and a cellphone battery for aljo. for my aunts, i gave them didache, a gospel reflection guide. for tito ven and reggie, who always helped me with car questions, car trouble and anything related to cars, i gave them a bottle of car shampoo and a special car cloth (i have no idea what it's called). for my ninang, a foot spa set. for franco, cd's of sesame street (hoping that he'll enjoy something other than barney). ate tetet and kuya weng got a magazine rack from us (which doubled as mom's monito-monita gift). i also gave venisse and via a powerpuff badminton set and a cd holder for bea. the boys got chocolates (i wanted to give something generic and having so little time to shop, that was what i came up with). those are really just very simple gifts but the spirit of giving is the reason why i tried really hard to have something for everyone.

merry christmas everyone!