http://davidtong.wordpress.com/2007/12/25/xmas-2007/

Xmas 2007 (http://davidtong.wordpress.com/2007/12/25/xmas-2007/)

25 12 2007 Another year, another Christmas, only thing is, this is the first ever Christmas we’re spending away from the Philippines and our family.


Instead of making this a gloomy Christmas, we made sure to make this a memorable one - our first Christmas in Singapore.


We spent most of the 24th doing some last-minute grocery shopping for our midnight Christmas dinner, bought some goodies to give our nice neighbors, even though only one of them celebrates Christmas.


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Xmas Socks



Yoki had to take a late, long nap to make sure he’ll be awake for Christmas eve. He’s been really anxious to open his big box underneath our little tree for the past few days as he already knows what’s inside (he was with us and chose the toy he wanted) but he loves to act surprised with his presents, especially those that he can rip open from the wrappers.


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Look for the Tree!


We went to take a nap and woke up just in time for early dinner around 8PM. After dinner, Yoki has been sitting on the armchair near the clock and has been pointing at it, counting how many hours it’ll be until “the moment”. Hours have past and we’ve decided to make good use of his holiday cheery mood to hand out presents to our neighbor.


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Three More Hours

Door to door, we knocked and he shouts “Merry Christmas!!!” “Presents!”, he handed the gifts to our middle-aged neighbors and they just adored his enthusiasm. Even the old lady who didn’t know why we were giving away chocolates was grinning from ear-to-ear.


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Giveaways (no, theyre’ not locked up!)


After handing out the presents, Yoki and dad went down to buy some call cards so we can call our friends and family in the Philippines. Every single person he met, Yoki shouted “Merry Christmas, friend!!!”. Chinese, Indians, Malays, doesn’t matter what nationality he saw on our way to the store, Yoki greeted them with utmost cheer and enthusiasm, and he got big “thank you” and smiles in return.

Mom was busy preparing our Christmas dinner. Vio and Tetch has been planning this for weeks, listing the food we’re going to have for tonight. We love food. http://davidtong.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif


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The Cook

Finally, the time of the night came, the short hand of our wall clock struck “12″ and we yelled “Presents time! Merry Christmas!”. As Christmas songs play in the background, Yoki grabbed his large box and started ripping the paper off the box. “WOW! CHOO CHOO TRAIN!”, he exclaimed. He starts to distribute gifts to mom, dad, and ninang.


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PRESENTS!

We also invited my friend, Nick, for dinner. The more, the merrier, and having good company with our family a welcomed bonus for us.



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Latecomer http://davidtong.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif

Each simple gift we’ve given each other were great, as presents should be. It’s not about the value or the rarity of the item, but the cliché of “it’s the thought that counts” is more pronounced when celebrating Christmas in a tight-knit group.


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Gifts!

After opening most of the gifts, Yoki was pre-occupied with his James the train gift and we asked him if he heard Santa dropped by. “Santa? Where?” was Yoki’s first question. We told him to look into his igloo, we saw Santa left something for him there. He finally saw the box, hurriedly ran back to open another large box.



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“Hey! Santa Was Here!”

It was Thomas and his barnyard! After dismantling the box in record time, we’ve decided to leave the other gifts for tomorrow as it’ll have a hard time competing for attention.


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Thomas From Santa!!!

Soon enough, dinner was served. He have a hefty serving of pasta, potato balls, roasted chicken, and flan. We were stuffed and we haven’t reached our dessert platter yet. I guess those can wait until tomorrow.


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Yoki Setting the Table
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Dinner… Is Served.

We spent the rest of the morning (it was past midnight) chatting with Nick and Yoki stayed up until 3AM playing his trains. After which, we went to bed, Yoki agreed - hesitantly.

December 25, 2007, 1130AM - We finally woke up. Still tired and sleepy from our abrupt schedule change, we had leftovers for breakfast and stuffed ourselves.
We started calling our family in Manila and HK. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, video conferencing with our loved ones was a cinch. Lola, Ninong Mike, and Ate Nicole were in front of us. It’s a shame that we didn’t celebrate Christmas the same way we’ve been doing the past decade, but all is not lost. We chatted and laughed for an hour, mostly Yoki and Nicole doing silly things, actually.


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Phone Call
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Ate Nicky

We wish Nicole was here with us, as there’s nothing better than seeing kids enjoy this festive time of the year together, but this is the next best thing for us and we had a great time nonetheless. We’re planning to fly back next year for Christmas, it’ll be great fun to see everyone in the flesh, until then, we’ll enjoy this special and unforgettable Christmas the best way we know how - being together.


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Family

Merry Christmas everyone!!!