A New and Old Christmas

Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year, mostly because of all the traditions that the holiday brings. This year brought forth both old and new traditions, most of which filled up the last quarter of my social calendar:

• *New* Pink-Red Christmas Décor. LRI’s Christmas elves went around medical institutions: ISDF, UST, and SLMC to decorate pink & red wreaths, garlands and Christmas tree. Shining Shimmering Glittering Galore!
• *Old* LRI Drive-Thru. Second Year in a Row to wish and sing carols for UL enablers and give Parol gifts. Bonding with PMG after at Nuvali.
• *New* ISDF Chorale’s Caroling. First caroling of the group around pharma companies. Kapuy driving around to Christmas traffic, but it's been fun donning the hats and singing along with the choir. Dream come true :)
  
• *Old* Greenhills Night Market. Food tripping of isaw, bbq, fish ball, bibingka, shawarma, hotdogs while watching the COD christmas animation. Sarap!
  
• *New* Meralco Christmas Lights. Meralco added new attractions this year, from the large copper Belens, to the christmas houses, santa's sleigh, and Mom's favorite Train! Choo-choo!
  
• *Old* Simbang Gabi. Was not able to complete this year’s 9 masses, but was able to celebrate 3: 15^th at Greenhills (celebrated by Fr. Orbos), 16^th at CTK with Ling (our annual tradition), and 20^th dawn mass at CTK with family (another family tradition).
• *Old* Enchanted Kingdom. 10^th Monthsary celebration at the well-loved amusement park. It’s been years since I last visited, and though tiring, it was great trying out all the rides again. The ferris wheel has never had a lovelier sight, with Ling holding my hand at gondola number 20 :)
• *Old* Exchange Gifts. Learned about White Elephant exchange gifts this year with PMG and Ohana. Fun fun fun!
• *Old* Unilab Year-Ender. Didn’t win the raffle this year (lightning can only strike once after all!), but was able to join the program—singing the Christmas Carol with Erik Santos. Starstruck!
• *Old* Reunions. All new venues this year: Tentative Tuesdays @ Kebab Factory, Haberdei @ Eat Well, KwaiLuh @ Kabisera, and House parties with the ISDF Chorale (@ Mamu’s place) and Ohana (@ Milo’s place).
  
• *Old* Christmas Greetings. Mass texts, posts and emails to friends, relatives, officemates. No unlitxt this year though, Globe suspended it early. Boo! But can’t resist still mass greeting (and listing up) everyone.
• *New* Black and White Christmas. Themed Christmas for this year, both for our christmas outfits and our food. Julius and I cooked noche buena for the first time. Good job!
  
• *New* Christmas Lunch. Clawdaddy at Boni High for some good ‘ol Baby Back Ribs and Szechuan Crabs. Yummy!
• *Old* MMFF. Watching I Love You Goodbye with Drew. Probably saving Wapakman for DVD instead (haha!)
• *Old* Christmas reunions with BFFs. Catch up over mini-reunions with Eda @ Sakae, MOA and Drew @ Fish&co, Trinoma. Missed these two friends, it's been a while since we last saw each other... thank God for Christmas gifts (new notebook from Eda, and A Time Traveler's Wife from Drew) and great friendship over the years. *hugs*
• *New* Christmas with Ling. First Christmas with the Boyfriend, meeting up in Bulacan to hear Mass at Divine Mercy Shrine. Exchange gifts: my adidas ateneo jacket for him, and his coach bag for me. Loved them both, but I love my lingling more :)
• *New* Christmas Party with Villamar cousins. Joy and Ine will have a sleepover at our house as we take them out to see Manila.
• *Old* Sta. Lucia Fireworks. Watching the show with fam on the 30^th.
• *Old* Christmas and New Year Blogs :)

My December was certainly full of old traditions and new activities, as my planner has itself witnessed. But all these made the holidays truly fun, eventful, nostalgic and memorable. Thank you to family and friends with whom I celebrated each special day this yuletide season. Wishing everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas!