First Christmas in New York

It was my first Christmas away from home. Since I wasn't with them ... I thought it would be a good surprise to send them something, so I ordered lechon online and had it sent to them at a specific time. So ... there I was chatting with them on Christmas morning (Christmas Eve here in NY) and I felt bad coz no one was saying thank you. When I asked what they were having for the gathering, they mentioned the lechon and that it was a gift from someone. Little did I know the place I ordered from was stupid and didn't include my name when they sent the lechon. haha. So anyway, I told them it was from me and then they told me they've been guessing who it came from since that morning. I talked to almost everyone there until around 1 AM here (2 pm in Manila). It was good to hear their voices. It let me sleep well.

When I woke up, it was time to open gifts at the Pangilinan Residence (it's where I live). After Tita Nimia distributed the gifts ...

... to us ...

... we opened them!
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After breakfast, we went to mass then took some pictures with the tree.


The grand reunion was held at the Ardsley Hall (which was like 5 minutes away from the house, yipee!). The place was nice. We set up the tables and some decorations then slowly, their relatives came. We had a nice meal ...

... and there were some performances ...

... and of course the Yankee Swap ...
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All in all it was a fun day ... I got to talk to my family back home and made them happy with my little gift. Plus, I got to eat a lot of food, laugh a lot, got some nice gifts and talk to people.