Christmas 2008
I may have mentioned it in previous blogs that taking a shower in the Philippines, one derives a certain amount of pleasure. It feels good to take a shower, even a cold shower at that. Over here I take a hot shower and it doesn't feel good and it's dreadful to get out of it because it's so cold afterwards! On the other hand, experiencing cold weather around Christmas time is really special. Somehow, that's one thing that's missing with Philippine Christmas. Sure it gets somewhat cool at night and especially during the early morning over there but mid day it goes back to the same hot and humid feeling again. Anyway...
Emy had to work Christmas Eve so Donna had to do most of the cooking for our Noche Buena. The salmon to be baked has already been prepared ahead of time by Emy, however. Here she is on a stool because she was having a hard time in stirring the tall pot that was used in cooking the wonton soup.
Reggie called from Japan and he sent me a picture of his newly assembled car that he took with his cell phone and a bunch of pictures he took using his brand new Nikon D60.
By the way Reg, we were on our way to the Kodak theater yesterday and I took a picture of your Uncle Nido. Look at who's on the left....!
The first ones to arrive were Emy's brother Nelson, his wife Myrna and their daughter Vanessa, then Dan arrived. After a while Eph and Rach came followed by Rach's parents Rose and Jun.
There was a lot of food as usual. I cheated on my eating-prime rib-on-Thanksgiving-only vow. I had some Christmas Eve as well. It was so good, so sue me!!
Eph and Rach were pretty impressed by our Christmas gift to them - a custom made wedding album in the format of a coffee table book. I had it made by friend Ruston Banal through his and girlfriend Rona's company RonzDarlhynne Design and Photography.
At around 11:40, Donna, Dan, Eph and I headed towards St. John of God parish church in Norwalk to attend the midnight mass. It was great to hear Victoria, the choir's cantor, singing Oh Holy Night once again. We missed her in 2006 and 2007. By the way, she and her group were the ones who sang during our Silver Wedding in 2001.
After church, we dropped by Rachel's parents' place in Norwalk to pick her up and then we went to Long Beach so we can get the Prius for our San Diego trip in the morning.
Christmas Day, we left La Mirada around 11 a.m. to visit Mary and Robert in San Diego. It's good to see them after all these months. There were a bunch of Mary's sisters and brothers when we got there. Ate Lyn and husband Cong Yeng were there as well. They've only been here in the US for a few months. Their sister-to-sister immigration petition finally fell through after 20 odd years! Romar and Theresa were also there.
They have a lot of food there as well. I just know it will be a bear to lose all the weight we've gained here!!
Josie and Rey also came, along with Ryan, Alice and Baby EJ. Of course EJ is the star as usual. He's such a happy baby and he's so cute in his Santa suit!
When we were in Spain, we made friends with Flor and her husband Marc. Her daughter Marliza lives with them in El Puerto but they have 4 sons who are all commissioned officers in the US military and we got to meet 3 of them. They visited Mary and Robert as well. They arrived with Flor's sister and her husband.
It was already around 9:30 at night when Donna and I arrived back into La Mirada.
Donna just had to do some after Christmas sale shopping Friday so we went to CVS across the street and she was able to get a bunch of chocolates on sale. We dropped by to give Rose the letter I wrote to the Greenfields security so they'd let her in. She'll be flying tonight to the Philippines and we told her to stay at our house. We then went and had dinner at Samurai. After dinner we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's an interesting movie about a guy (Brad Pitt playing the lead character) who was born old and he grew backwards growing younger (physically) while he was advancing in age. Not sure why but for some reason it reminded me of Forrest Gump.
Saturday, December 27
The coordination between us friends to watch the Fil-Am Jazz Fest at the Catalina Jazz Bar and Grill yesterday was pretty chaotic at best! To make a long story short, we ended up having dinner at the CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. We picked up Mary and Robert from Fullerton and we headed to downtown LA. Before we got off the freeway, we got a call from Ed and he suggested for us to park by Catalina and walk the few blocks to Kodak Theater. Ed and Odette along with Gene and Elaine were already seated when we arrived. When the waitress was taking our order, Imelda and Dan called and said they were parking so we also ordered food for them.
We're already started eating by the time Dan and Imelda arrived.
We just had to have some pictures taken by the huge Christmas tree in the Kodak Theater after which we walked towards Catalina Jazz Bar and Grill.
There were already a lot of people when we arrived. We saw Roger (or did he see us?) inside. He's with some of his friends. We ordered our minimum drinks once we were ushered to our seats by the side of the stage.
The show was great. In addition to Mon, a bunch of extremely talented Filipino Jazz singers (Charmaine Clamor) and musicians (Jazz pianist Tateng Katindig) were featured.
There were a great number of performers including Mon with his three songs set. Watch his first song here. Click here to watch his second song.
After the show we interrupted Mon as he was signing autographs for fans who bought his CD to have our pictures taken with him.
JASHS Class '70 is so proud of you, Mon!
Pagmaragul na ca ning Balen Capampangan!
LUID CA!
Emy had to work Christmas Eve so Donna had to do most of the cooking for our Noche Buena. The salmon to be baked has already been prepared ahead of time by Emy, however. Here she is on a stool because she was having a hard time in stirring the tall pot that was used in cooking the wonton soup.
Reggie called from Japan and he sent me a picture of his newly assembled car that he took with his cell phone and a bunch of pictures he took using his brand new Nikon D60.
By the way Reg, we were on our way to the Kodak theater yesterday and I took a picture of your Uncle Nido. Look at who's on the left....!
The first ones to arrive were Emy's brother Nelson, his wife Myrna and their daughter Vanessa, then Dan arrived. After a while Eph and Rach came followed by Rach's parents Rose and Jun.
There was a lot of food as usual. I cheated on my eating-prime rib-on-Thanksgiving-only vow. I had some Christmas Eve as well. It was so good, so sue me!!
Eph and Rach were pretty impressed by our Christmas gift to them - a custom made wedding album in the format of a coffee table book. I had it made by friend Ruston Banal through his and girlfriend Rona's company RonzDarlhynne Design and Photography.
At around 11:40, Donna, Dan, Eph and I headed towards St. John of God parish church in Norwalk to attend the midnight mass. It was great to hear Victoria, the choir's cantor, singing Oh Holy Night once again. We missed her in 2006 and 2007. By the way, she and her group were the ones who sang during our Silver Wedding in 2001.
After church, we dropped by Rachel's parents' place in Norwalk to pick her up and then we went to Long Beach so we can get the Prius for our San Diego trip in the morning.
Christmas Day, we left La Mirada around 11 a.m. to visit Mary and Robert in San Diego. It's good to see them after all these months. There were a bunch of Mary's sisters and brothers when we got there. Ate Lyn and husband Cong Yeng were there as well. They've only been here in the US for a few months. Their sister-to-sister immigration petition finally fell through after 20 odd years! Romar and Theresa were also there.
They have a lot of food there as well. I just know it will be a bear to lose all the weight we've gained here!!
Josie and Rey also came, along with Ryan, Alice and Baby EJ. Of course EJ is the star as usual. He's such a happy baby and he's so cute in his Santa suit!
When we were in Spain, we made friends with Flor and her husband Marc. Her daughter Marliza lives with them in El Puerto but they have 4 sons who are all commissioned officers in the US military and we got to meet 3 of them. They visited Mary and Robert as well. They arrived with Flor's sister and her husband.
It was already around 9:30 at night when Donna and I arrived back into La Mirada.
Donna just had to do some after Christmas sale shopping Friday so we went to CVS across the street and she was able to get a bunch of chocolates on sale. We dropped by to give Rose the letter I wrote to the Greenfields security so they'd let her in. She'll be flying tonight to the Philippines and we told her to stay at our house. We then went and had dinner at Samurai. After dinner we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's an interesting movie about a guy (Brad Pitt playing the lead character) who was born old and he grew backwards growing younger (physically) while he was advancing in age. Not sure why but for some reason it reminded me of Forrest Gump.
Saturday, December 27
The coordination between us friends to watch the Fil-Am Jazz Fest at the Catalina Jazz Bar and Grill yesterday was pretty chaotic at best! To make a long story short, we ended up having dinner at the CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. We picked up Mary and Robert from Fullerton and we headed to downtown LA. Before we got off the freeway, we got a call from Ed and he suggested for us to park by Catalina and walk the few blocks to Kodak Theater. Ed and Odette along with Gene and Elaine were already seated when we arrived. When the waitress was taking our order, Imelda and Dan called and said they were parking so we also ordered food for them.
We're already started eating by the time Dan and Imelda arrived.
We just had to have some pictures taken by the huge Christmas tree in the Kodak Theater after which we walked towards Catalina Jazz Bar and Grill.
There were already a lot of people when we arrived. We saw Roger (or did he see us?) inside. He's with some of his friends. We ordered our minimum drinks once we were ushered to our seats by the side of the stage.
The show was great. In addition to Mon, a bunch of extremely talented Filipino Jazz singers (Charmaine Clamor) and musicians (Jazz pianist Tateng Katindig) were featured.
There were a great number of performers including Mon with his three songs set. Watch his first song here. Click here to watch his second song.
After the show we interrupted Mon as he was signing autographs for fans who bought his CD to have our pictures taken with him.
JASHS Class '70 is so proud of you, Mon!
Pagmaragul na ca ning Balen Capampangan!
LUID CA!
posted by reyjay @ 5:44 PM
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