december 20, that next monday, i went to the office for a while to attend a conference call with the folks in bangkok. on a normal day, i would have wished that i was there physically as i have never been to thailand but this was an exception because a
dear friend was getting married. and this time, they had their church wedding. me attending the conference call was not really a good decision since i (together with raf and rona) arrived late for the wedding rites. it had been such a long time since i last saw jen and karl so this also served as our reunion. we so wanted to throw a bridal shower for our friends who were getting married (jent, grette and jenp)
but our schedules
were already hectic because of the christmas season so we weren't able to. jent was more beautiful than ever in her gown, her hair shining with the crystal-encrusted piece she wore. the reception was held at bahay ng alumni in u.p. and it was yet another reason for me to reminisce. the traditional bouquet throwing did not happen and instead the bride decided to award it to someone instead knowing that her single 
female friends (me included) would try to avoid it as much as possible (we aren't at that age yet where we're scrambling to get it). and the bouquet was awarded to... myn! this is the second time in our barkada's series of weddings that myn got the bouquet. i'm now wondering if there would be another set of wedding bells that would ring. :)
after jent's wedding, ginia was ever so kind to bring me to audrey's place in green meadows for the implementation team's christmas party. and so i was all dressed up when i arrived there. i made it on time without a white elephant gift though because i thought i wouldn't be able to attend. it was a costume party and since i was a bit dressed up, what i wore to jen's wedding doubled as my christmas party costume. we played games and our team even won in the "paint a picture" game since we had roy (dressed as a priest) and bert (dressed as santa). and since two of the scenarios were simbang gabi and santa on a sleigh, there was no doubt that we would win. :) lu, aileen and jocy went through the traditional new hire presentation. we even thought that they had it easy because they presented in front of a small group. the party finished a little past midnight with still a lot of beer and chips so it seems we're going to have another party to finish it all up. :)
december 21, a party long-awaited and long-discussed about finally happened --- the tsongers' christmas party.
i would have wanted to say this was a long-planned party as well but me being in china made it hard for me to consolidate everyone's wish list and so i emailed some folks (those whose addresses i know) to just send their wishlists via sms. i knew most of the parent-baby combinations since i got to pick for those not in manila. even where we were having the party was a last-minute decision. 
we had to decide between chili's and red crab and those wanting seafood won. i called up red crab (which is actually the seafood club in greenbelt) and asked for a reservation but i was calling at 6 pm for a 7 pm reservation so they said that they would just accommodate us when we got there. the one i talked to said that there was a reservation for 12 people (we were 18) and if they did not come on time, they'd give that slot to me. and so i rushed from the office to make sure i arrived there on the dot. i had a minute to spare when i got there.
i looked like an idiot sitting in a table good for 18 people
and so i texted everyone to rush. plus, if the waiters saw that i was sitting alone for a long time, they might make me move to a smaller table and then we're back to square one. good thing that everyone arrived soon and the party went under way. the food was delicious, it was even better since it had been a long time since i last had crabs. 
and a kilo of crab was actually just a single giant crab. when they said king crab, they weren't kidding! after sampling the different crab dishes, we had our exchange gifts. and so it went: alvin - eden - marta - eins - jo - bri - irish - andrew - romer - pogs - art - bert - reno - rose - neil - pearly - tintin - kat - alvin. it was great seeing everyone again and seeing all the gifts being given. better yet if your baby really liked what you got for them. :)
after dinner, we went for coffee (starbucks) and tea (coffee bean and tea leaf)
and proceeded to a not-so-crowded area of greenbelt. that's where we spent until midnight exchanging stories. but like the song goes, all good things never last and we had to part ways eventually.
i am not sure when we'll all see each other again (probably next christmas) but this one could probably sustain me until our next reunion. :)
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