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 2010 is over, goodbye, I hate to see you go, but I, more or less, had a good time, thank you.  So, hello, New Year 2011 ! I hope this new year will have something better for me. Not that 2010 was a bad one… it was , in fact , a good one. I went to the Philippines this summer , met new friends and relatives, had my 15 minutes of fame at Jason Derulo’s concert,  went to see Usher’s concert too.

So, how was my Christmas ? Well, it was rather stressful. Christmas eve, my mother and I went shopping for ingredients. We left at 10 AM. I forgot to eat breakfast, ( and I ate very little dinner the night before, like 4 spoonfuls of something ) and grocery shopping went past lunchtime, so , at around  2 PM, I almost fainted, right there at the grocery aisle. Good thing Mom was with me. I sat down on the floor and mom had my head down between my legs until I recovered.  There was a Chow King nearby, ate something there, but i just threw up  and made a mess of it in the car.  Anyway, once home, we buckled down and started cooking. I made the maja blancaleche flan , and wrapped the bananas and the lumpia ( pork eggroll ) for frying the next day.  Then , the family attended the Midnight Mass, at 10 PM. We got home at 12 midnight, ate the traditional hot rice porridge we call  ” arroz caldo “, and though we went to bed at almost 2 AM, we still hoped we could wake up at 5 AM to resume cooking. But I  guess we were all so tired  we overslept . Mom was the first to wake up at 9 AM !!!!  It was supposed to be a Christmas lunch and we had at least 7 guests coming over.  The stress was tremendous, and  at 11 AM we figured we wouldn’t be able to get everything done by lunchtime, so my sister started calling the guests ( her friends actually ) and moved lunch to  a later hour like 2 PM.  They nevertheless came much later, at 3 PM . The Christmas lunch became a Christmas supper.  They had a good time, emptied 3 bottles of champagne,  and actually left at 1 AM ( this morning ) . Here are some pictures of our Christmas dinner. Not shown in the pictures are leche flan, maja blanca, the teramisu cake and the pretty fruit centerpiece  that I made. There just wasn’t enough space on the table. We put them on the kitchen counter.

My mother and sister miss the Philippinie Christmas tradition.  Midnight mass there is really held at midnight.  Christmas in the Philippines is one of the longest in the world. From Dec. 16  to the 24 th, Filipinos attend a 4 AM Mass, called ” misa de gallo”,  the so-called mass at ” cock’s crow “, a 9- day novena of Masses.  Before 4 AM, church bells ring everywhere, and brass bands parade down the street to wake the people up for the misa de gallo. ( I remember the brass bands…. their music was loud, lol )

On Christmas eve, Filipinos prepare for the Midnight mass and midnight meals after the Mass they call Noche Buena 

We used to observe  this Filipino tradition of Noche Buena, a sumptous meal right after the Midnight Mass, here in the US but It’s not practiced here , even among Catholics.  So, we discarded it 6 years ago and opted for a  lunch or dinner  on Christmas Day.

We opened our gifts after lunch . I got a Kodak digital camera from sis and cash from my parents and brother.  I wished for a PS3, but I guess I’ll have to save for it.

Well, this is all for now. Happy New year everyone ! ! Peace !!!!