Friday, January 12, 2007

Before D'DAY

Going back home to Pinas was something Hoen and I have been anticipating for over a year! The wedding was the best excuse but what we really wanted was to spend the Holidays with our friends and family. And that's exactly what happened.

However, the journey towards going home took a lot of hard work and savings. As you all know, wedding planning takes a LOT of work. Luckily for me, I had one of my best friends take half the share of the planning so it wasn't as stressful as people thought it was. Then there came the savings. Every month, we would come up with a scheduled budget for ANYTHING wedding-related then I'd distribute it among those months depending on availability of funds and whatnot. We were pretty good at working this out. Then came the ACTUAL trip. Our legs were Missouri -Denver - LA - Korea - Cebu. NOT a piece of cake at all. We started off taking the 6 am trip on Dec 19th and landed Cebu around 1 am , December 21. The first sign of Murphy? They lost one of our huge luggages- the luggage with a lot of our gifts and wedding stuff. We lived everyday on the clothes we sent through the Balikbayan box and I had NO PAIR OF SHOES to wear. I ended up buying P300 sandals. Hoen and I adjusted well to the weather much to our surprise but it was fun experiencing the things we've lived with for more than 20 years of our lives. Like no running hot water on the faucet, heat and ventilation, dogs that bark through the night, HELPERS!!! Haha. I did not have to think of what to cook for 3 straight weeks!

Also, since we asked Tisha to schedule all our wedding meetings after Christmas, Hoen and I were able to enjoy and experience the Christmas rush in the malls (SM was both a good and bad idea). Since we were the first to arrive, we were able to see Chime arrive, Kuya JJ and family arrive, Jones arrive and finally, Ate Joyce et al (Jones, Ate Joyce and our lost luggage arrived at the same time on the same night. Creepy). Good thing Doogie and Leg were at the Waterfront Mactan Hotel to wait with us, hehe. Anyway, Hoen and I alternated sleeping between our houses-- Mandaue if we want to spend the night with my family and Labangon if with Joen's. Christmas was scheduled via a party at our house in Mandaue so the Morenos and the Cordovas were around. We started with dinner then followed it with the chapel mass at the village and then the gift giving then the Noche Buena then the singing and then the pics taking. It was fun fun fun as Hoen and I played Santa during the gift giving. I like seeing the people's faces light up when they got their gifts. Another highlight was the singing spree. Even though the Allers are a musical bunch, the Morenos want to flaunt it more. So Papa, fluent in Spanish and all like both my parents, sang Spanish songs to his delight. Lingaw! Also JOHN, of all people, braved doing Christmas solos in front of anyone as Ate Joyce watched. He really fell in love with our family and kept saying, "You have a beautiful house and a beautiful family." Awwwww. Mama, Chime and I led the group in blending the voices. Ngilngig!

Spending the Holidays at Pinas meant having a Harem night too. On the 23rd at IT Park's Patio Ecila, we had our gift-giving dinner
which I missed last year. They made fun of my gift wrapping because it was so skewed and all over the place, I called it Jetlag wrapping. Aside from the little gifties here and there, I gave three of my best friends shoes and fortunately, they all fit and they all loved it. Wacky photos are a part of every get together and, well, here they are...!

I wonder when we will be celebrating the Holidays in Pinas again. Whenever that may be, I'm sure we'll have a blast again.


Pic 1: Hoen at the beautiful Incheon Airport
Pic 2: John at the back of the pick-up the night they arrived. He held on for dear life!
Pic 3: The Moreno folks at the Waterfront Mactan lobby awaiting Jones and Ate Joyce et al's arrival
Pics 4 - 6: Few pics from the Christmas Party
Pics 7 - 10 : The Harem Christmas Night at IT Park


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