Review of the Holidays

Here are some random thoughts about how I spent the Holidays:

Top of my list, of course, was having to spend Christmas and New Year in Manila with the missus and my boy. Seeing my boy getting more Christmas gifts than me and the missus combined showed how much the little fella is loved by his relatives. Too bad we weren't able to dress the entire mini Santa suit on him. It would've been cuuuute with the beard and all. Maybe it'll fit him this year.

Much to the dismay of his titas in Paranaque, he was asleep throughout the 2006-2007 turnover. This was inspite the titas' "indirect paggising sa kanya."

I've attended 3 Company Christmas parties ---which some say is below average of the Filipino employee. It was a joy to have experienced this since there wasn't one when I was in Malaysia. Christmas is just a one-day event there. Our department also had a Kris-Kringle wherein my "daddy" gave me very weird gifts: a toilet-plunger, 2 living white rats in an air-vented iced-tea bottle, and a baby chick (sisiw) spray-painted in red. The gifts caught everone's attention, including my boss, so I spent the next two weeks finding out who the suspect was. I had one particular guess who was considered the weirdest guy in the department. The other year, when the instruction was "something twenty," I heard that he gave his "baby" a balloon filled with, get this, twenty used McDo french fry bags. Creative isn't he? (But it wasn't as creative as the gift given by one of the VPs for "something funny:" a framed pic of Fanny Serrano)

Eventually, the culprit surrendered himself to me during the revelation night and was apologetic when he gave me a checkered short-sleeved polo as my Christmas gift from him. The shirt was definitely worth the wait.

I was able to remember all my inaanaks and bought each of them Christmas gifts ---some of whom I've never seen in years and would've been surprised that one of their Ninongs is back in the aguinaldo loop.

As for the holiday food, it is of no surprise that the missus and I consumed more than our average intake. The morcon, the Excellente ham, the hito, the molo soup, and the assortment of cakes from Conti's and Red Ribbon (and Krispy Kreme donuts) among others, have attributed to the rightward movement of the bathroom scale pointer. Good thing we bought a threadmill which we *hope* to use often to shed the unwanted fat.

During the missus' friends' Christmas party, the host pulled out his poker set. Now as you may know, my card-playing is only limited to 21 and pusoy-dos. But I've been watching a lot of poker on cable-TV and "sort of" understood how it was played. After the host and the other players taught me the rules of the game, we played for what I thought was only for fun.

Believe it or not, I won ---with a full-house to end the final round. Beginner's luck I suppose. Then the 3 who lost pulled out their wallets and started handing me P100.00 each. I declined but then they insisted. What I didn't hear was that during the start of the game the pot was P300.00 for the winner. The missus heard this but maybe since I was overwhelmed with excitement I didn't pay attention. But hey, if they insisted that they give me P300, why not? Hehe. I considered it tas heir aguinaldo for me. Hmmm, I hope they'd still invite me for poker on their next Christmas get-together.

All in all, it was a wonderful Holiday. I'm very grateful to have experienced it from start to end ---which I believe ends today coz of the Feast of the Magi.

In case I didn't greet you, here's a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me to you!