Merry Christmas from the Philippines!

Happy Holidays dear readers and subscribers!

As I’m writing this, I’m listening to a Christmas pop playlist on Spotify. A playlist which includes “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey and other pop artists. Hehe.

Wanted to say thanks for reading and following my blog. It’s something I do occasionally, mostly as an overflow of longer pieces I write elsewhere, and I didn’t even think I’d get more than 90 followers plus other readers.

I know that in the blogosphere this is nothing, but I do appreciate your time.

Anyway, I wanted to show you what Christmas was like for me this year from the Philippines. Christmas is a big event here, with the lead up to the actual event full of harried preparations and traffic jams everywhere and people crowding the supermarkets to prepare festive meals.

It’s quieter than most at our house. Most of my immediate and extended family are abroad, so we don’t have big get-togethers and reunions.

Table set up. Everything is old. My family’s Noritake china from the 70s, if I’m not mistaken. My dad bought the fancy glassware ages ago.

The not-so-matching cutlery I bought from a home store in Singapore last year.

We ordered food. We had macaroni salad. An aunt cooked this using a recipe that’s been in our family for generations. It’s macaroni pasta, shredded chicken, pineapple and mayonnaise. It still tastes like how it tasted when my grandmother used to make it. Brings back a lot of memories, especially of people who are missed.

Homemade ham ordered from a friend. Because Christmas is not complete without ham.

This is the Ilonggo version of morcon. Meat mixture with boiled egg inserted somewhere and raisins in a casing like intestines. We usually eat it almost frozen. I love, love, love this. It reminds me of my my life here and how even though things change everything’s still the same.

Lechon or roast pig. Because how can you have a big Philippine celebration without heart-attack inducing lechon. Hehe.

Callos. My dad used to make the best callos this side of town and people would request it for the holidays. This was from one of the hotels here. Close in taste to my dad’s but still not as good.

Our dessert table floweth over. We ended up with two brazos de mercedes, a local dessert made of egg yolks, white and sugar. Will take a photo if I get the chance.

Then there’s fruit salad. Because Christmas always has fruit salad. And chestnuts or castanas, bought from the neighborhood Chinese store.

An overview of our Christmas Eve dinner.

We also ate this for the Noche Buena, the meal after the late mass, and we are still eating it today. Hehe.

Not in photo is the chocolate cake my mom bought me.

Wanted to say, Merry Christmas, wherever you are in the world.

I know some people spend Christmas alone. You guys are in my thoughts.

PS. I had them buy ice and some of it was stored in our ice bucket, which is more than 30 years old! Haha. I’ll take a photo of it sometime too.