It’s a time for joy, family, and presents. This is our first Christmas in the Philippines, and to be honest it wasn’t too different from celebrating in the US. We got to spend time with family and friends. However, one difference I noticed was that we weren’t too busy running around. This was probably because we have less family and friends here than back in the US.
We spent Christmas eve at Auntie Buelah’s house. She lives on the beach in a fishing village called Taluc. Auntie Buelah is my dad’s aunt. Her husband, Uncle Reuben, grew up in Taluc. They threw a huge Christmas party for the neighbors. They played games like volleyball, apple eating contest, a potato sack race and of course they had karaoke.
We arrived late for the games but right on time for the prizes. About 150 neighbors came to the party, many of them were children. We served batchoy, a beef soup, out of a huge pot.
Overall, we had a pretty chill Christmas at Auntie Buelah’s house.