The Christmas That Was

It all went too fast...

For the first time in five years, our family was complete. It's not very easy to complete the family when you have parents, a sister and her family half-way across the globe... This year being the 40th anniversay of our parents, they decided to have a grand celebration.

Why not the 50th? My dad's turning 80 next year. Though he is pretty strong, and pretty much up and about despite his age, my parents wanted the chance to enjoy this milestone and still keep the memories.

The house went through a renovation months before their arrival. On the day they arrived, we had 2 vans and a car fetching them. The balik-bayan boxes were massive, not to mention their luggages. And to think, they were here for only two weeks.

And the kids!!! The house was full of them every single day of those two weeks. All nine of them enjoyed each other's company. The quiet ones were finally heard and the best friends were ring-leaders of various mischiefs. They prepared numbers for the anniversary party. All the performances were by the kids. Us adults stayed in the background as we preferred.

The theme was red. Of course, my dress was predominantly black... hehehe.

We all had little rest during the entire time. We were always out doing things -- errands, groceries, meet-ups, parties. And the steady trail of visitors -- relatives mostly, and neighbors, friends, people from church -- kept us up and about.

I got sick, of course. Got my dad sick too. We were the "taumbahay" while everybody went to hear the Midnight mass for Christmas. A cousin who married a doctor last year came by to visit and promptly gave us prescriptions of antibiotics. Oh well...

And, on Christmas day itself, our dog gave birth to her first batch of puppies -- nine of them! Sadly, they were born premature. They were wee bits of little dogs. We didn't expect them to survive but three still live and they seem to be thriving. Sigh...

They left for the US on Jan. 1. The plane took off a little past 12 noon. By that time, those of us who were left behind have gone back to our respective homes and dozed off... finally.

It was a whirlwind of a holiday. But I treasure every minute of it. Five couples, nine kids. It's a veritable clan. And happy to be in one family. One could only be so lucky...

=)K