Malipayon Pasko!!! Unlike in America, the Filipinos celebrate Christmas similar to the way we celebrate New Years (though they do that too), with the big celebration being Christmas Eve, and then celebrating at midnight as well.
For our household, it went this way: Sylvette and Toto got in Sunday night after church. As their rice fields were ready to be harvested, the men went out to inspect them Monday (the 24th), and hire workers to harvest them. Meanwhile, we women did laundry, made lunch for them when the got back, and went shopping for the feast making.
Since refrigeration is very limited, many people actually purchase whatever they are going to purchase on the day of preparation--so imagine the lines at the Mall!! Crazy...
When the men got back, they started taking one of the motorbikes apart--I found out later that though they were thoroughly cleaning it, it was mostly just to get 'experience', as there was nothing actually "wrong" with it. (The Serisolas like to keep busy, and so if nothing else needs done, they often go work on their motor bikes, and learn all the pieces, etc...something Toto especially likes to do! :p)
The plans were that most of the cousins were coming over, which meant we needed a good amount of food. A couple families came early to help prepare:
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| One way to make a fire here |
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| Preparing the Pork Adobo |
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| Cooking the Lechon |
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| Making Mango Floats and Creme Brule' |
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| Nanay and Lola (her mom) |
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| Making more food at our regular fire stove. |
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| Lechon almost done--they really enjoy this job!! |
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| Still working on the motorbike (around 7pm) |
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| Making Filipino-style Spaghetti ("spag", which is sweet) |
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| Mmmm!! Bordz likes!! |
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| Having fun.... |
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| Washing the dishes... |
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| What a beautiful spread!!! |
This was hanging in one of the bedrooms, and I liked it so much, I took a picture of it! :)
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| I helped with most things, but especially made Tapioca Salad. |
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| Happy, happy, happy...funny how much people enjoy food! |
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| Still working on it. ;) |
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| One of the sisters married an Egyptian, who is muslim--no pork, etc. |
After everyone left around 11:30pm, we had Sparkling Grape Juice, etc. to celebrate midnight, and stayed up until probably around 1:30am or so continuing celebrating before going to bed...
Next is Christmas Day...
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