best christmas ever

we had high hopes of having time for ourselves when we were planning our christmas vacation in the philippines. afterall, it's nine long years of not coming home for christmas! so we decided to stay for three days in cebu and to spend at least an overnight at sofitel in manila. we just needed this little piece of relaxation to reward ourselves after months of working abroad and raising kaela all by ourselves. come on, we deserved more than a pat on the back.

neither of the plans happened.

we reached manila at the height of the storm. it took us almost three hours on the road from naia 3 to vito cruz. we had to pass up staying at our condo in makati (we have yet stayed there since we bought it in 2012 and it must have been nice to spend even a night after three years) and went straight to my in-laws' place.

two days after we arrived, we attended my brother's wedding in bulacan. the next day, kaela was down with fever and coughing badly. two more days after, i got the same virus. to make it worse, mama was also not in her pink of health as there was some accident during one of her dialyses. not a pleasant way to start our most awaited vacation, eh? you thought so!

fast-forward two weeks....

• i had bonding time with mommy and kimm.
• papa spoke a few words to me. it was pure bliss!

• mama spent time with me and kaela in a mall nearby and we had chats in some mornings and evenings despite the sparse times she felt restless.

• we went to bataan and nueva ecija to visit francis' relatives. it's good to see nanay (francis' grandma) who, to my surprise, can still read tagalog novels without specs!

• most of my relatives on papa's side visited us on the 26th dec.

• we met up with our godparents (in marriage) - ninang chit, ninong frank, ninang lina, ninong cocoy, ninang lita and ninang marietta whom most of them we've never seen since we got married. we also had gone to ninang lulu and ninang olang's house. they were very short visits and yet, ours is the honor of spending these precious times with them.

• we met with kaela's godparents - our dear friends yel, pat, christine,  johnny,  boc and michelle. it's always nice to catch up with these amazing people. i wished we had more hours to kill.

• i had spent time with my highschool friend,  dada.  she also just embarked into a lifetime career of "motherhood"  and it's good that after all these years we still find a common ground.

• flor and hiram were generous enough to reserve their precious time, coming from paranaque and cavite, just to have time to talk and bond.

• most of the dlsu-itc friends turned up at Mama Cata's place. it's so nice to see and be friends with them through these years despite the rare chance that we gather almost everyone together in the same roof.

• our cousins,  together with kitt and i, went to a coffee shop to bond. we ended the night being quizzed by a six year old,  only to realize that intelligence doesn't always go with age.  (main highlight -  ano ang tagalog ng pond? everybody fell silent!) 

• francis got a taste of mama's traditional 'paagaw' on new year's eve. 

• we managed to spend time (mamasko,  in our common term during christmas) with our grand parents -  lolo enteng,  lolo pete and lola beth. we also went to inang chayong,  our aunt,  and never hesitated to bug her during her bedtime.  it's definitely worth being with the old-and-wise in the family. 

• it was nice to have a chat with ate cora. it's been years since we had one. 

• whenever we went to manila,  kaela bonded with her cousins. 

• i had little time talking about serious business with my brothers but they spared some time on our last day discussing our plans for 2016. (what a shame that mike wasn't even in this pic) 

we may never had time for ourselves but nothing was lost. everything seemed to have fallen into its perfect place. we enjoyed our vacation,  surrounded by people whom we love. it's more than what we asked for.

we will come back again for christmas.

by the time we flew back to sydney,  to come home to an empty house,  our hearts were torn again.  but that's for another blog.