Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This week was a very exciting week. From Christmas with the family to New Years Day. We had the cousins and auntie over, as well as the missionaries for kamayan. Mom and dad have a new firepit and patio set up in the backyard, where we set up some long tables and set out rows of white rice, beef, pork, chicken, fish, shrimp, mixed mango tomatoes onions and eggplant, bagoong, and soup. Delicious, but very cold out, and the food lost heat before all the guests arrived. Maybe next time we have an outdoor kamayan, we’ll wait until after we bless the food to lay out the kamayan… and maybe have some outdoor heaters around the table. We played board games galore with the siblings and spouses almost every night. Kuya really got a lot of board games this year, and a lot of them were fun to learn and play. One of my favorite new games was citadel. Josiah climbed the stairs all the way for the first time. Camille and Andrew left for Arkansas in their new baby blue pick up truck early New Years Eve probably around 6am. New Years Kuya decided to sleep over in the area of his work, so we had an intimate gathering watching the New York fireworks with the wife, the baby, grandma, and nanay. After son fell asleep, Rhea and I planned out the year with our new goals, and reviewed our previous year. It’s been a good week. A lot of time off for the first time in a long time, and a lot of time well spent with family.