Now That's What I Call Christmas!

I am a Christmas-phile; I never lost that child-like amazement at the magic of Christmas. At this age, Christmas still leaves me breathless and ecstatic (like the song goes...if every day could be Christmas). Forget the toxic holiday rush, the stress of buying gifts and the financial implication. It’s the time of the year when I actually forget the perils of my 9-5 job and prioritize my family, my friends and all the things I love doing.

This 2009, Christmas was again a blur of food, festivities and 10-shot family photos. Though the season is far from over, here are 10 things I enjoyed doing or will (still) do this Christmas break.

(1) Christmas Carols. Do you hear what I hear? As early as November, I start listening to my Christmas playlist/CDs just to get in the holiday mood. Mock my “dirty pop” choice but I dig the Christmas albums of Mariah Carey (Merry Christmas), NSync (Home For Christmas) and 98 Degrees (This Christmas). Would you believe that I listen to Christmas songs on my iPod any time of the year, especially when I start to feel depressed. All the one-horse-open-sleigh and chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire never fails to pick me up.



(2) Shopping. For gifts, of course... to fulfil my holiday obligations. But somehow, I also end up buying gifts for myself (heck, I deserve it). My usual destinations are Shangri-La Mall, Duty Free, Trinoma and despite my reluctance to patronize their malls, SM Megamall/Podium. This year the Marquee Mall in Angeles opened and quickly became one of my favourites (free parking, nice mix of stores). I tend to visit the malls with lower foot traffic and I come during off-peak hours. But then again, every hour is peak hour about a week before Christmas. My favorite shops are Make Room/Handyman (for useful home stuff), Hobbes and Landes (for kid’s stuff), Rustan’s (for my sashyal friends) and Powerbooks (for booklover friends). Sorry but during this time, you cannot drag me to Greenhills or Divisoria where all the gift items are cheap but you could barely seen them because they are covered with humans.



(3) Gift-giving. As a champion of the marshmallow test, I have enough EQ to resist opening all my gifts until the strike of midnight on Christmas day. I love receiving gifts I can use (even socks, a hankies or Post-Its). Pardon my worldliness but since we are talking about gifts, this year has been the best harvest of gifts. I can practically use everything! Thanks to all the people who complained that they find it difficult to buy me a gift but did a great job anyway!



(4) Reunions. Even if I get to be grilled about my relationship status (single but happy, thank you for asking), I look forward to Christmas day when our whole clan gathers at the ancestral house and celebrate. Great food… videokefest…bingo games. This year, we added two games that rocked the house: Hep Hep Hooray and Pinoy Henyo. I realized I sucked at the first one. Meanwhile, the fastest Pinoy Henyo record was 18 seconds, set by the tandem of my cousin Patrick and brother Louie. Here’s how their exchange went:

Tao ba? Oo!
Sikat ba? Oo!
Artista ba? Oo!
Channel 2 ba? Oo!
Nakikita ba sa teleserye? Oo!
Nasa May Bukas Pa ba? Oo!
SANTINO!!!

Their other quick exchange went like this:

Tao ba? Oo!
Sikat ba? Hindi!
Ordinaryong tao ba? Oo!
Nandito ba? Pwede!
Patay na ba? Oo!
AMA ONIONG!!! (our deceased Lolo)

For friends, December 30 has always been reserved for my long time (meaning grade school) peer group. We have a lot of catching up to do, especially this year when we didn’t see each other during our birthdays because of family emergencies. I wish we can have the same regular reunion sked for my high school barkada and college orgmates.

(5) Home Makeover. OC side up! My Mom established this routine of general cleaning of the house days before Christmas. While this is primarily to tidy up the house for holiday visitors, admittedly this is the only time of the year when our schedules allow us to organize the clutter we manage to collect all-year long. This year, I finished the makeover of our living room, kitchen, dining room and toilet/bath before Christmas. And before we welcome the new year, I would have gone through the rest of the house (bedrooms and garage/porch).



For my other home (the office), I organize my office table (which screams busy and toxic) during the last work day of the year. This year was extra exciting because our department transferred to a new space on the same floor.



(6) Read, (7) Watch and (8) Write. If you are a workaholic like me, it is already a luxury to do the things you love. This vacation, I caught up on my reading. However, I ditched The Time Traveler’s Wife and picked up some Christmas books instead (Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans). When my brain starts to hurt from the imagery of the text, I shift to DVDs. I brought home some DVDs I have yet to watch. Plus, there are Christmas-themed movies I watch every year (Serendipity and Love Actually). Yet on Christmas Day, I ended up watching Home Alone (for the 814th time). Lastly, I need to catch-up on my other favorite creative outlet and stress-buster: blogging. I need to stop tweeting and do some serious writing.



(9) Foodtrip. So I have been starving myself all year long. And I am also trying to get back on my all-white-meat diet. But Christmas is the perfect excuse to damn the calories and pig out. For some semblance of nutritional balance, I added more greens to the Christmas menu this year (with a recipe for salad dressing courtesy of R). But the desserts are provocatively sinful. Rich fruit salad, chocolates, cakes, rice cakes, ice cream,...you name it! I have a theory that the Selecta Gold Selection (especially Vanilla Almond) is a ploy concocted by the flailing gyms to increase membership. Or the Vicky Belos of the world to create more demands for lipos.



(10) Sleep. Like a baby. Zzzzzz.



Even if I miss my office friends, I am enjoying my time off.



Dear Santa, please slow down the time. I am excited at what the new year will bring but I am enjoying this and am not ready to go to work yet. I've been a good boy naman. Please?


(Santa Bella courtesy of YP).

Enjoy the rest of the Holidays, folks!

A Hallmark Christmas SMS

SMS killed the Hallmark greeting card. Since the advent of texting, it’s been part of the Christmas tradition to send a text greeting to friends and loved ones as early as Christmas Eve (which explains why the networks are clogged beginning 5pm of the 24th). Empirical evidence shows that more than 200 million messages will be sent within these hours (that’s 20 million people or a quarter of our population multiplied by average 10 SMS per person).



Yes, I fall victim to this tradition. But as a self-proclaimed disciple of arts and letters, I never send forwarded SMS. I just “borrow” some lines and give it my own twist. Which makes it some kind of original and a little more thoughtful.

Last Christmas my message goes: "As we celebrate the season, let us remember to celebrate THE REASON. A wonderful Christmas filled with peace, laughs, love and blessings to you and your family."

This was inspired by a tweet sent by an ANC news anchor (initials: TM).

The funny thing is that my message gets resent and recycled. Yeah, like a stubborn chain letter. I get it back at least five times; which means a friend forwarded it to other people...including myself or to another friend who sent it back to me.

And that’s just fine with me. Consider it my share in spreading the holiday spirit.

I hope everyone’s enjoying the holidays!

Nightmares and Visions Before Christmas

I know it’s been a tad too quiet in here lately. Too quiet perhaps. I have been blogless for nearly a month now and the reality of this hit me when a friend sent this franctic YM: Are you OK? I haven’t seen any blog updates from you.

I didn’t realize my breath is measured by the number of blogs I write. Sweet! In blogosphere or in the greater “online” world...if you disappear, it means that you actually HAD A LIFE.

Ha ha..who am I kidding? Nobody will believe me if I say I took a 3-week leave and spent some time off in Tijuana. My very active Twitter account would have been a dead giveaway (my Twittername is Barnieboi to those who are still asking).

Let me bask in this moment. I can’t believe I am actually sitting infront of my laptop and writing (as opposed to working). My schedule has been really crazy so I was surprised when my normal routine came back today. By normal, I mean sleeping before midnight and waking up by 5AM to blog or enjoy a lazy morning before work.

So where have I been? I have actually been vacillating between WORK (what did you expect?), SICKBED and SANTA. Since my birthday, a lot has been going on in Barnie-land that I don’t even have time to just sit still.

WORK. ‘Tis the season when the air gets nippy and we start rolling out the blueprints for next year. In three letters...it is known as AOP. Annual Operating Plan. I just finished two rounds of this gruelling and brain cell-consuming mission. Our own AOP was done in Sonya’s Garden. Just imagine we had to concoct plans and promos while being seduced by the foliage and spa-like environment. That gave me a soothing headache. Hehe. Kidding aside, this place is amazing. I wish I could back here and do nothing.









We just had a problem with the toilet and bath in our villa. It was made for couples on a honeymoon. Not for colleagues sharing a room (cringe!). See for yourself why:



While in this not-so-secret garden, I ended up eating flowers (no dirty thoughts please), craving for tarragon tea, crashing into other people’s room (coz I can’t sleep) and dancing to Jay Sean’s Down (don’t ask me how and why).

SICKBED. A few weeks back, I had to consult the MD again (second time this year). Medical tests showed that I had some severe infection in a still unconfirmed area which is causing the fever and extreme abdominal cramps. I thought it was gastritis. The doctor fear that it might be appendicitis, however the pain is different. She just gave me quick-relief medicine with instructions to go back if things worsen. And asked me to stay away from milk, soda, liquors and my liquid love (that’s coffee to the unromantic). Good thing my body reacts quickly to antibiotics so a second visit was not needed. But I still have the pains every now and then. I think stress has finally caught up with me. Note to self: I really should have a full medical check-up.

The said pain is also preventing from doing extreme physical activities (run, crunches). So I think my body fat index is on its way up even before the Christmas gluttony gets in full swing. Second note to self: get physical on Christmas break (why do I sound like I want to be a warfreak?).

SANTA. I caught the Christmas spirit early...sometime around my birthday. But it was booed away by those three letters (AOP...see above). Now I’m trying hard to get the feeling back again. I’ve started doing my Christmas shopping but I ended up buying more for myself than gifts for other people. My target is to complete my gift list this week so that my personal gift wrapper (hello, C...belated happy birthday!) can now fulfil her yearly obligation.

Speaking of gifts, I really punish myself and go out of the way to give “personal” gifts to people...or at the very least something they can use. Gone are the days when I would only have two gift options: books and CDs (though I still give these to people who loves them as much as I do..wink, wink). I already completed my gift list and I know what to give my friends...but the more herculean task is actually buying it. Like where is it best to buy an XXL shirt?

Friends have also been asking if I have a gift wish list. I’m OK with anything I can use, be it socks or a hanky. I’m practical that way.



In between Work, Sickbed and Santa, I’ve been trying to get as much sleep as I can. Not only because I am often drained, sated and spent. I happen to read this email about the head of SAP India who recently died. He was young and athletic. It turned out that he was multi-tasking too much and didn’t give his body time to rest/sleep. The parallelism is just too much that it fed my already full-blown paranoia. Yaiks!

Now back to happy thoughts! I need to go back to my Christmas list and check it twice. I might change my mind on what to give those who have been naughty.

HOHO (the Christmas version of XOXO)