A Very Red Christmas

Christmas is always a special time of the year for our family. Sadly, however, we do not have many specific family traditions like Kendall's family. Every year is different. We eat different foods, sometimes we all go to church as one big family, sometimes we open our presents right at midnight and sometimes we wait until nighttime on Christmas Day.


But there are things that never change--the same faces seen, the same emotions of love and cheer felt, the same songs sung, the same (sometimes embarrassing) family stories retold over and over again, the same nostalgia for the true Filipino Christmas.


Well, first of all, Christmas is always a family thing. That much has never changed since I can remember. Ever since I was little, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are two special days when the whole family gets together to do two of our most favorite things: cooking and eating. We enjoy each other's company in the kitchen and around the dining table, laughing at each other's jokes and stories, teaching each other new things about foods and whatever, trying out new recipes and improving the old. Having a good time, basically.


Then there are the pictures--we always have to have the traditional family pictures.


And, of course, there's the phone call. My parents and our aunts and uncles all call home separately beforehand, but when we get together on Christmas Eve (which is Christmas Day in the Philippines--time difference), we have to make one as a whole family. It's a bit sad because we all miss home and everyone there, but it's amazing when we pass around the phone so that everyone can say something for everyone on the other side to hear. Every year, we practice our Ilocano, say hi, ask what they did for Christmas, send them our love and try as hard as we can not to miss them so much.


One of the things I miss the most about the Philippines is the taste of warm bibingka during Christmas. Not the delicious bibingka that people make throughout the year, not the soft and creamy ones that we always buy from our favorite store, but the round and white bibingka that vendors labor over during December dawn masses so that it's ready and wrapped in banana leaves by the time churchgoers come out. My favorites were the ones that were burnt and black at the bottom--the taste would be deliciously bitter at first but then the bibingka would slowly melt in your mouth and the bitterness would be replaced by warm and coconutty sweetness. Mmmmmmmmm.....


We didn't go to Christmas masses very often when we were little (because we couldn't wake up very early, try as hard as we might), so those who went would bring home treats for us, just in time for breakfast. We'd come down in the morning to find bibingka and puto bumbong waiting on the dining table. When we did go, I always had to have the bibingka.


The last time we all went back home for Christmas in 2007, our plane touched down in Manila late at night. Then we immediately got on a bus for the long ride home. We arrived at the house at dawn and after the initial greetings, one of the first things I tasted was one of the bibingka that I found on the kitchen table. Amid the tight hugs and exclamations of "JEN! You're all grown up!" and tears of joy all around me, it was that simple round and burnt piece of rice cake that really welcomed me home.


As you can probably tell, I love Christmas. And I miss having the Christmas I used to have in the Philippines--the lights, the parols, the carolers, the food, the church time. But having it here, surrounded by so much love and family, is still a good way to celebrate and spend the season.


Some of my favorite presents this year? I got 366 day's worth of happiness for 2012, a chance to change the world (which was red), the feeling of being a part of 1/10 of 1% (!!!) and a J Scribble to prove it (also red), three full hours of intense concentration and meticulousness with tweezers and an art knife, two candidates in my life-long search for the perfect water bottle (more red!), hands that will never know germs and will always be fresh and scented, approximately 10 full days to complete all of my college apps and essays, and the heavenly yet very sinful taste of chocolate and raspberry all truffled and everything (genius--also, partly red) among other things. Oh, and of course, the traditional shirt from whatever store's big at the moment (re--nope, tricked you! Purple!). That's also one thing about Christmas that will probably never change. And I'm glad it won't.

Risks taken: 11 

Hugs: 0 (I'm sick--congested nose, slight fever, coughs, blargghhh--so no one wants to get near me...)

Current food cravings/obsessions: CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP AND ORANGE JUICE PLEASE

Playlist(s) of the Week: "This Is What It Feels Like"

November is gone. So is my sanity.

NaNoWriMo 2010 came and went and Kendall and I both failed. To constantly reminds us of our shame, we are going to keep the word counter things on the left column until next year. Unless Kendall reads this and decides to take them off?

But just because November is over, it doesn't mean that we're gonna stop.

WE ARE GOING TO FINISH THESE. MARK OUR WORDS. WE WILL.

November is a terrible month. Who decided it should be November anyway?

Just in case you were wondering, or if we didn't tell you before, Kendall's story is basically about a group of friends and a couple of them are going out while there's one guy who likes this girl, but the girl is going out with another guy. Then the girl gets abducted by the government bacause she hacked into some top secret thing and her friends have to rescue her (I don't know their names, sorry). They go to different places all around the world like Jamba Juice (where they find a bald kid named Alex!), our friend Rachel's house, Washington state, Hawaii, etc. Yeah, it's crazy.

Mine is about two sixteen-year-old best friends, Cammie (real name Camryn) and Jay (real name James)...who are really best friends (I don't know how else to put it, but they are). A weird purplish tattoo thing shows up on Cammie's wrist and she starts to notice that something is...off...with Jay, who has been having weird dreams about some creepy guy (Who is it???) watching Cammie sleep ever since he was four. Jay lies to Cammie about something (like, legit-tangled-spider-web-ripped-pieces-of-a-note-in-three-separate-trash-cans-around-school-and-deleted-Internet-history-kind-of-lying), Cammie finds out and they have a big fight over it. Jay disappears so no one was there to catch Cammie when she suddenly collapses at Winter Ball and doesn't (or more like, can't) wake up. And how does that Cam Lau (real name Cameron...whaaattt??) boy factor into all of this?

Doesn't that sound delightful? No? Well, I like it. Flashback memories make up most of it. I like flashback memories.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I love Christmas.

For some reason, I'm extra-excited for this coming holiday season. Don't know why, but I am.

--Fruity

P.S. I like how we have two more creepy people reading this blog. Keep 'em comin', guys, keep 'em comin'. We're still waiting for some views from countries in Africa and South America. Our goal is to hit every continent! Except Antarctica.