A Pinoy Christmas.

Last week I received a package from my good friends Lindsay and Brendan, and I had explicit instructions not to open it until Christmas. While this should have been tough, it was made easy due to the fact that my sisters immediately took the gift from me and placed it with the rest of the family presents. There, done and done. I’m not going to lie, though—we did shake it and feel the edges, trying to figure it out (my sisters too, not just me!). Well, this isn’t a build-up to what it was, but rather, to the message that was inside. Lindsay had written a beautiful card that came just at the right time.

She said, “I can only imagine how glowing you are today. One of my best Christmases was spent in India, in a village where I was teaching. It changed this holiday for me, suddenly allowing me to only focus on things I was grateful for, and letting go of the stress which usually accompanies Christmas. Turning it into Thanksgiving in December.”

Well, Lindsay, you summed it up beautifully. And that’s what Christmas was for me this year. It was a time to say thank you for everything and everyone in my life, whether here present with me or far away. This year, Christmas was about creating something new. While I did miss the traditions at home—time with family and friends, Christmas cookies, snow (mm…I missed it for about two seconds), playing cards, watching Derby open his gifts, sleeping by the Christmas tree—there were some new traditions that we were making here, a combination of Filipino and American traditions. And I must say, it was the best Christmas I could have asked for, despite the millions of Christmas parties and craziness that whirled around.

Between last Sunday and Monday, I attended four Christmas parties at my workplace—three specifically for all the kids and one for the staff members. Parties here are much different than parties at home. There almost always involves some sort of program—performances of songs, dances, games, etc. Think of it sort of as the Christmas program that elementary schools do, where each class might perform something different. On Sunday night, I was recruited to be a participant in “Hip Hip Hooray”, which is a slightly obnoxious game from the show Wowowee, which is an even more obnoxious daily, three-hour-long game show. Google it. I dare you. It will forever change your life after you watch it. Anyways, I was one of twelve participants recruited to play in front of all of the kids at the center. Let’s be honest—my mind is pretty quick and I’m usually pretty coordinated (not really, but let’s just say that I am). These two factors led me to be, yes, the CHAMPION of Hip Hip Hooray. Let’s just say that if I’m forced to do something, heck, I’m going to do a darn great job at it. It doesn’t pay to be mediocre! And I came out of the deal with a whole bunch of chocolate, which was the grand prize.

Monday night, we had our staff party at work, which was also combined with someone’s 25th anniversary at our center and her sons 21st birthday (which is a “debut”….happens at 21 for men and 18 for women, similar to a quincienera). There was a nice dinner and a great performance put on by singers and dancers. After the dinner, everyone left except for the staff members (there are about 30-40), who all stayed to participate in the games portion of the evening.

The first game was quite hilarious, and not a game that any of you would be willing to play with your co-workers, I will bet. If you would, props to you. Well, this is what happens. Chairs are arranged in a circle facing outwards, like for musical chairs. Men sit down on the chairs, and women walk in a circle…like for musical chairs. The music plays, and suddenly stops…like for musical chairs. The women race to find a lap to sit on…like for musical chairs. You might have guessed it already, but the game is the same as musical chairs, except the women end up sitting on their male co-workers’ laps instead of directly on the chairs. Sound like fun? You bet. Now, like I said before, if I’m forced to do something, I’m going to do it well. There is no joking around with this girl. The first round was pretty successful, except I think I hurt the poor guy because I dove so fast on to his lap that he wasn’t exactly expecting it. During the second round, I sat on a lap at the same time as another woman, and in my process of leaving to run around the circle and find another lap, I accidentally elbowed her in the mouth. Now they REALLY love the American. Well, that was it. I was out on the second round.

The second game of the night involved seven women and seven men, and the purpose of the game was to see who had the largest facial features. A ruler was brought out, and the size of everyone’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears were measured. I’m not quite sure how the final winners were decided, as it was different for every category, but after much laughter by both the participants and crowd, the game was over. I’m still working on figuring out the overall objective of the game, but hopefully by next Christmas I will understand.

After the two games, we had our exchange of manita/manito gifts (Secret Santas). We all stood in a circle with our gifts while the music played, and one at a time, we danced in the middle of the circle and handed our gift over to our manita. The whole process took quite a while, but it was really fun to see everyone have to perform in front of everyone. After the gift exchange, most of the crowd disappeared, but there were a select few that stayed to sing videoke. While I tried my best to avoid performance, I did have to succumb to singing both “That’s what friends are for” with my supervisor, and “I Will Survive”. After the night was over (which was at about 12:30), I realized that I need much practice in videoke before I am actually somewhat okay at it.

The next day, I went into work in the afternoon and the place was desolate. There was no one in their offices, and the main office was even locked. All of the kids were leaving to attend a Christmas party, so I headed home to make tutoring materials. When a co-worker found out that I was “working” at home, he told me to “Just relax!”. At that point I realized that yes, I am American, and yes, unless I am doing something “productive”, I feel somewhat guilty. I realized, though, that this was okay with me, and I continued with what I was doing.

On Christmas Eve, I woke up for 4AM mass at the local church, where I joined thousands and thousands of other people who were sleepy and also excited for the arrival of Christmas. Later in the day, after returning to bed, I went with my counterpart to pick up my gift from Peace Corps—a brand new bike! Thank you, Peace Corps, for delivering my bicycle allowance just in time for Christmas. I met another volunteer in the afternoon for coffee, and then I headed home to hang out with the family for Christmas Eve and bake my lasagna. Now, since it was my first Christmas in the Philippines, I didn’t quite know what to expect. After eating a small dinner, I started making the spinach lasagna for our midnight meal. Here, the main Christmas celebration takes place at midnight with a big meal and gift opening. Two of my siblings went to 10 PM mass, and the other sister went to take a nap. I then received an invitation via text to join my co-workers at videoke, but since it was 10:30 already, I decided to stay home and told them that I would practice for next time. With no intention of actually practicing, I casually mentioned it to my family as a joke that I would be “practicing” my singing here. Well, so we got out the videoke at home so that I could practice. While in large groups of people, this normally causes high levels of anxiety in me, it was really comforting and a LOT of fun just hanging out in the living room and singing videoke. I seriously could not get enough of it! Granted I’m no singing legend yet, but I stopped singing from my throat and started singing from my stomach. So the practice did me well! And what a fantastic Christmas—we took turns singing our favorite songs, enjoyed some wine, and waited in anticipation for midnight. After the clock chimed twelve, the fireworks in the street were colorful and the food on the table abundant. We enjoyed a great big meal and then opened gifts as a family.

Christmas Day here is really nothing special compared to at home. Unlike at home, stores and malls are still open, as the main Christmas celebrations took place the night before. In the morning, I was lucky enough to fall down the stairs with my body still intact! While at first I thought my ankle might have been twisted, it turns out the pain went away after about a day. Clutzy me. Later in the day, my oldest sister was becoming a godmother for the third time, so I decided to attend the baptism with her. Now, I’m not quite sure if Christmas is just a popular day for baptism, or if there are just this many babies being born ALL THE TIME, but there were about thirty babies being baptized on Christmas Day. THIRTY! It was a bit chaotic and not at all like a baptism at home. Afterwards, we attended the party at the home of the parents (who were friends of my sisters), which also happened to be their family Christmas party as well. As soon as we realized it was the family Christmas party, we tried to make an exit plan. However, we weren’t quick enough, as my sister was called on to stand up and wave, and since I was the token American, I was called on to come to the front and introduce myself into the microphone. This is so that everyone can know who I am, what I do, and why I’m there. They may have also guessed that I invited myself to this baptism as well, but hopefully not…

The night of Christmas, I taught my family how to play Uno (which was a gift that I had given to Papa for Christmas). They had so much fun with the game, and we played until late into the night. I am foreseeing my Uno tournaments in the months to come. The day after Christmas, my body was so tired that I slept almost until noon, and then again from five until seven. I felt sickness coming on, so tried to rest as much as possible. Fortunately, the Uno game we played that night helped me to feel a little better!

So that was a very LONG-WINDED version of my Christmas, and I’m sure you fell asleep halfway through. All-in-all, I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas, because as Lindsay said it would do, it really “allow[ed] me to focus on things that I was grateful for and letting go of the stress which usually accompanies Christmas.” Thanks Lindsay!

Merry Christmas all <3