have yourself a merry little...

Christmas. It was the season for gift-giving, carols, reunions, weddings, cold mornings snuggled up in bed. There was time for some meditation, but not enough. There was time to be appalled at the way some people viewed Christmas, lugging their kids along to make pamasko, and the street urchins not satisfied with 1-peso coins. Indeed. Christmas in Manila.

A belated Merry Christmas to one and all. Here's to a blessed, prosperous New Year, too. Heaven knows we Pinoys deserve one. You hear that, Tita Glo?

Finally the year-end work is starting to clear up, and the gifts have all been wrapped and given. I've also (quite speedily and skillfully, I might say) done my accounting for the period. I'm the type of person who accumulates all the expenses and receipts and then sits down later on. There have been times that I've been shocked out of my skull because I've spent too much. Fortunately this Christmas wasn't such a time.

Things I was able to do over the Christmas holiday weekend:

buy the DVD player the parentals have been hinting about wanting for the longest time. Now we have to find room for it in their bedroom, for which jam-packed is an understatement, as the mother-unit is the ultimate pack-rat.

feel good about myself because the mixed-CD of some of my favorite songs I gave as a Christmas gift to my closest officemates was well-received. Songs included Someone to Watch Over Me by Sting, I Only Want To Be With You by Vonda Shepard, White Flag by Dido and Worry About You by Ivy.

go to Power Plant on Christmas Eve just in time to spot Jericho Rosales (yummy but looking a little thin) and the entire Cojuangco clan (Peping, Tingting, Maimai, Mikee, and some husbands).

go back to Power Plant twice, once because Rustan's package counter didn't give us back one of the packages we left, and the other time because the DVD of The Apprentice had the bonus materials instead of the season finale.

plan to meet up with a lot of people and not having anything push through because...

got sick over the Christmas weekend. The rhinitis is already a constant factor, but I got a baaaad case of the runs and abdominal spasms as well. Overeating was not a factor; although zeester#1 also had stomach trouble, so it must have been something we ate at Christmas lunch. As a result, was able to watch Cartoon Network Megatoon Movies 4 hours running... from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, to Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero, to Barbie's Rapunzel (was quite cute, actually... or maybe those were the painkillers talking). When it got to Barbie's The Nutcracker I had had enough, though, and ran out screaming.

see the look on Cam's face when I got her the Barbie love Surfer SpongeBob set. And then marvel at kids' interpretation of meaning of the season when the next morning she calls and mentions that if I were to get her a gift for New Year's, she would really really want a surfer Ken. Hmmm. When we were young... oh well... never mind. I must admit the parentals did a good job of bringing us up.

watch the season finale of The Apprentice. He deserved to win. Especially when his opponent in the final face-off was aherrm.

finally get to watch My Sassy Girl. It was totally engrossing, hilarious, entertaining. Koreans must be doing something right, what with this movie and the hit series Lovers in Paris (at least I now know who Carlo, Martin and Vivian are). Wanna die?

after watching My Sassy Girl, get plastered watching the saccharine, tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately blah A Carol Christmas, starring the person who makes it ultimately blah, Tori Spelling. Gary Coleman and William Shatner and the ghosts of Past and Present make for good watching, though Coleman's dialogue was a little too tongue-in-cheek about him being a has-been. In the battle of the ultimately blah Christmas Carol variations, I think I'll take Vanessa Williams' A Diva's Christmas Carol over this one any day.

achieve about 2% of targeted room clean-up plan. Not helped by the fact that the Christmas gifts for the province are still stacked there.

go last minute shopping with the mother-unit for her gifts for her department. Lines aren't that long, there was even a sale at SM. And then last night, gift-wrapping 40-odd gifts.

Phew! It was a good weekend though, tiring gift-wrapping and stomach pain notwithstanding. Not bad for a member of of the Samahan ng mga Malalamig ang Pasko.

Last Song Syndrome : All I Want - Toad the Wet Sprocket