Monday, January 12, 2009 Starting By Rene Lizada Papa's Table
SO HOW was your Christmas? Was it the same? Was it different? Was it better? Great? Could have been better? Lonely? Were you alone? Joyous? Spiritual? Maddening? Let me tell you about mine.
My Christmas was different this year. For one thing, we did not go to Ateneo as we always do for the Christmas Eve mass. Actually, we had our Christmas Eve mass at dawn of the 24th. We had it at the hospital where I work in. It was a simple and quiet mass.
It was without fanfare and the noise. I loved it; our three children did not like it. They wanted to have the tradition that we had. So on the night of the 24th, we went to mass again. Not at Ateneo but a private mass where it was quiet and simple. I liked it; I think my wife did too. The kids did not.
When we got home, we had the usual ham but we changed the noodles that went with it. We usually had bihon, but this time we decided to have something different. It was.... different. We had wine and Coke and we had Chona's famous fruit salad and a really rich chocolate torte cake from Marco Polo. The cake was good! We had lot pastries courtesy of friends. Raphael's girlfriend came by and gave us another cake!
After dinner, we had the usual exchange of gifts. This year was more kind to us so we made "bawi" in the gifts for our children. They got more than the usual. They were quite surprised. And it was fun watching their reactions. We also did the "manito manita" thing.
I got a lamp much to my relief because my old lamp had developed sound effects already. Last Christmas Chona and I decided that we would buy two things and that would be our gifts to one another. I will not mention them na lang because you would not understand, it would be too weird!
But in spite of that, we opted that we would give each other a gift. I gave her a blouse and she gave me a shirt. And through the combined powers of my wife and the kids, they gave me something I needed. What that is I would rather keep to myself.
Christmas Day was spent sleeping. I did my usual Christmas thing, I watched My Fair Lady. I wanted to watch more DVDs but frankly, I was too tired and too sleepy. During lunch, Chona and I went to my Tita Dandy where most of the Lizadas by tradition had lunch. We went there because the food was good.
It always is. Chona and I had ham, embotido, really evil bagoong, lechon, bopis, cholesterol, and of course, ho hoy! Then after stuffing ourselves, we sat and talked and talked and talked and ate again. Some cousins stole a videoke machine and tried to sing much to the annoyance of the neighbors but hey, it is Christmas!
The kids stayed home during Christmas Day because they were too tired and too sleepy; besides, it was more fun that way.
Christmas brings out the bears in us. Our family would rather hibernate than go out. And if we did go out, we go out at night. We were like vampire bears.
I cannot remember what day it was, the 26th or the 27th, but it was one of those days that we decided to go shopping. But it was not something that I looked forward to because the shopping was mainly for Migoy who would be leaving in a few days for his Masters. He was going to Singapore.
My kids knew that I was getting sad and more "eemo." But that is me. So off we went shopping and to take away my blues I decided to do a little shopping for myself. My kids made Chona fulfill a promise, that she would do a makeover of me. I am not really a person of clothes but they told Chona that she better do something about me. And so she did. And I guess it was lucky enough because sales were all over the place.
In fact, I think I bought more stuff after Christmas. And so did everyone else. Eps bought things and Gabo also. Chona as usual said that she would come back and buy it. I think I lost control when I saw that magical sign, 50 percent off.
December 28 was our wedding anniversary and so we had dinner out. We went to Bigby's for our celebration. When we got there, the place was so full that we had to wait. When we got our table, we saw so many friends and relatives. The food was good at Bigby's as it usually is.
I think it was Raphael who suggested that we announce our anniversary. I told him to shut up but somehow people started finding out that it was our anniversary. I was starting to get nervous because I knew that sometimes Bigby's would burst out in song if they found out that it was your birthday or anniversary. I was half expecting that the food servers would suddenly march out and start singing the Anniversary Song. Luckily that did not happen.
