The holiday past

The holiday season swung from frenetic to fairly sane—from rushing to one affair after another to hosting huge clan gatherings, from facing a refrigerator full to bursting with holiday goodies to subsisting on left-overs and dishes heated and re-heated to near oblivion.

The season began for us with a party with some of our “Colombiana” group, Filipinas who traveled to Colombia earlier in the year and jointly hosted our Colombian hosts when their turn came to visit the Philippines. After the exchange of visits, we Pinays decided to form ourselves into a loose group undertaking common projects, the first of which was a Christmas party to be held in our Alfonso, Cavite home. Despite last-minute cancellations, the party proceeded as anticipated, with early dinner of pizza, barbecued ribs, paella (thanks to police Gen. Lina Sarmiento and Jovy Reyes), scrumptious lengua (another contribution from Jovy’s mother) and Sabsy Palanca’s “I ordered it myself!” food for the gods. We were also blessed with the presence of Sr. Arnold Maria Noel, vice chair of Sulong CARHRIHL, and the staff of Sulong. With everybody’s cheerful participation, our games like “Pinoy Henyo” and a raffle went off with lots of laughter and jollity, even if the prizes consisted of little more than novelties and trinkets.

In our Antipolo home, we hosted the traditional David reunion over lunch on the 24th, as requested by our beloved Tiang Viring who had church obligations on Christmas Day. I don’t know how we managed to cram almost a hundred Davids into our small home—and, more important, fed them with enough menudo de rabo, spaghetti, “Everlasting,” and other pot-luck offerings to assuage holiday-size appetites. A cousin, Elsa, lent a twist to the usual bingo game by calling out a number and, if it was on your card, you lost your chance of winning. It was fast-paced and as usual peppered with raunchy David humor.

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That same evening we hosted the Jimenez Christmas Eve dinner. “Angry Birds” was the theme I suggested for our party, mainly because I’ve been obsessed with the game ever since I first played it on my brother’s iPad and when I inherited a niece’s second-hand device.

My sister Charo and I had the time of our lives shopping for Angry Birds paraphernalia at the Eastwood tiangge, including Angry Birds hats and pins. But all of our efforts were upstaged when the “Alabangers,” my sister-in-law Coratec and her children plus my brother Father Boboy, showed up at our door with ingenious hand-made masks made to look like the various Angry Birds, including those annoying chuckling and grunting green pigs.

But the party was truly livened up by the new generation: grandchildren Uno, Koko and Shasha, who oohed and aahhed with every new gift they received and then entertained us by dancing, singing and chattering away.

The next day, we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed to pay a visit to our beloved dead at Loyola Memorial. We planned to catch an MMFF movie after lunch at the Gateway Mall, but we finished late and the Alabang Jimenezes had to leave for the Tecsons’ own Christmas gathering. We fell into bed upon arriving home.

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We went up early to Alfonso on Dec. 29 because we were hosting a gathering of the “Media Girls” and the “Sisterhood” the next day in honor of our “sistah” Maloy Ramos Barairo, who was visiting with her son Vince.

The next day, as the “girls” trooped in with gifts, hubbies and children in tow, we spent the afternoon imbibing red wine and munching on a repast organized with almost frightening efficiency by Pennie Azarcon dela Cruz. The next few days, our FB pages would be crammed with photos and comments highlighting our decades of friendship and our “still” beautiful visages, since as Pennie says: “Keep your pictures, because 10 years from now, you’ll be besotted with yourself!”

The next day, we waited for my family members to gather for our New Year’s Eve celebration. We decided on an early dinner because the others had other commitments that evening, but we filled the moments before our Korean barbecue feast with a lively game of “Pinoy Henyo.” Allow me to announce here that, together with my nephew and godson Jami, I emerged the grand champion after guessing the right answer (Jose Rizal!) after only four seconds! By midnight, only my husband, son, daughter and myself were left at home to welcome the New Year with paper horns and a blaster air horn, while catching glimpses of more spectacular light shows down the highway.

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Still, the highlight of the holiday season has to be the annual Jimenez New Year’s Day reunion, which gathers all six branches of the Pacita and Ildefonso Jimenez clan in a night of overflowing food, dessert, competitive presentations and good-natured and loud ribbing.

“Philippine Fiestas” was the theme of the gathering organized by the next generation of young Jimenezes. My husband wanted to try his hand creating a papier mache “higante” so Angono’s Higante Festival was our chosen theme. Unfortunately, we thought the appearance of the “higante” alone would shock and awe the judges (our Tito Ramy, Tita Chul, MMDA general manager Coratec, and tourism secretary Mon), but we were proven wrong.

Instead, the prize deservedly went to the “Parada ng Lechon” of the Tierra Pura Jimenezes, complete with a lifelike papier-mâché lechon and “pig-sonalities” ranging from Manny Pork-quiao and his nose-lifted wife Jinky, and President “Pork-Noy.” We were shocked and awed by the creativity of the presentation (and to think Mon J. didn’t even take part in conceptualizing it!), the effort put into it, and the hidden acting “talent” of our relatives.