CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS, OUR PAROL AND RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER

Malapit na ang Pasko! I am so excited!! Now that Nikki's birthday is over, I can focus on the Christmas preparations. Okay, sure, I'm making a big deal out of this but this is CHRISTMAS!! My favorite time of the year! Besides, this Christmas will make up for the miserable one I had last year. So, as early as mid-November, I was already decorating our apartment with little Santas here and there. I also got us a small Christmas tree and Nikki helped me decorate that. The pine cones we picked at Sankeien Garden ended up in the tree too. It's a tiny tree but very cute and Christmas-y. I have to remind myself to take a picture of it one of these days. Last week, I started making a list of what to prepare for Noche Buena. I'm thinking fried chicken or chicken barbeque (for the boys), baked macaroni (for Ruther and me), leche flan (another one of Ruther's favorites) and maybe another chocolate cake, similar to the one I made for Nikki's birthday. I would love to have suman sana, as we always do in Zamboanga, but well, I don't know where to get banana leaves here. The coconut milk is readily available in cans at the supermarket so that's not a problem but I'm still hesitant to try to make it here and just waste all the ingredients. I miss the lechon that my lola sends to all her children every Christmas eve (she buys a whole one and chops it up and divides it into several bags). It's so yummy especially with Mang Tomas. Yum yum!

Anyway, am hoping to buy some of the groceries for Christmas eve next week. I still have to wrap the presents for the boys, and decide what color our clothes are going to be for the Christmas pictorial. Hehehe... I'm sure it'll be a Merry Christmas this year indeed...

...

I miss our parol. It's so Pinoy. Now that I'm out of the country, there isn't a parol in sight. Kaka-miss talaga. Whenever we pass those vendors selling lighted parols along the road near NAIA it always gives me a joyful feeling. They look really cheerful and colorful, lalo na sa gabi. The paper lanterns are wonderful too but the big lighted ones really brighten the house. I like those the best.

My mom told us stories of how, when she was a little girl, she and her cousins would go caroling and bring these paper lanterns with them. The parol in those days had candles inside them to provide some light for carolers. She said that every night when they went home, their paper lanters would be singed or burned from the candle. Sometimes they would have burns from the hot wax that dripped on their hands and fingers. It really is nice to hear these kind of stories. Makes me wonder what kind of stories I'll be telling my kids when they are older.

...

Do you remember watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in your childhood? Remember that stop-motion animation? Sam, the snowman is the narrator of the story. Of course, there's Santa Claus. Rudolph leaves the reindeer games because of the teasings about his nose and he meets Hermey, an elf who wants to be a dentist. Then, there's Yukon Cornelius the prospector and the Abominable Snowmonster. It's such a cute story. I used to watch this all the time, every Christmas as a child. I think I watched this as faithfully as I watched "The 10 Commandments" every Holy Week. A few days ago, I asked Ruther about it and he remembers the story too. He downloaded it and now, the boys, Ruther and I can watch this together. Isn't that great? Another tradition formed. Watch it again and relive your childhood...