How Christmas Happened

It started early afternoon of Christmas Eve when I prepared the menu for the noche buena. The menu included the usual pasta, fruit salad, chicken macaroni, ice cream, brasos de mercedes and some drinks. Just before 8 pm, my son and I headed for church to attend the Christmas Eve mass. It was the first time my son and I went to attend midnight mass together. Last year, I was on duty as junior intern.

After the mass, Rien went to the Baby Jesus image and along with the other children, kissed his baby feet. I then took his picture infront of the nativity scene situated beside the altar. We went home where the rest of the family was waiting. We had our noche buena during which Rien led the family prayer. We were surprised how he eloquently prayed the "Grace before meals" without error. Later, we exchanged gifts and opened them beside the Christmas tree.

On Christmas Day, Rien and Roann went to Himamaylan to spend the holidays with her mom's relatives. I spent the entire day watching DVDs I bought earlier. I then called up my fellow PGIs who were on duty at the hospital to greet them.

This morning I dropped by the hospital to visit those on-duty. For the first time also, we the magic four (Gesper, Ken, Marc Japit and me) went out for lunch at Manokan Country. We then went aboard the visiting M/V Doulos and went around the bookshop. There were many cheap books and there was this one Pediatric Book which we couldn't resist. We had to buy it and it cost 100 international units.

Christmas Day has come and gone but as far as I can remember this is so far the nicest Christmas I have ever spent.