I hardly have time to put up my feet and relax these days. There are gazillions of social functions to attend and I haven't even dealt with half of my Christmas list...but it's only a mere 48 hours before Christmas! What's a harassed mom to do?
December 22, 2007. Shopping at the SN Tiangge. I took Sabrina and Seth to "SN" (San Nicolas) – our version of SM here, actually named the 365 Mall – for some more shopping. I was wearing a bacon-collared tee, because whaddaheck, it was comfy and I was only going to a tiangge, anyway. But horror of horrors! While we were eating at Shakey's that afternoon, I ran into one of my professors; Inaki's best friend's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Church; Sabrina's best friend's entire family; plus the Manager whom Raul personally knew. That'll teach me not to wear bacon-collared shirts in public from now on.
December 21, 2007. We left Laoag for Sarrat at about half-past 3 in the afternoon for the PAGCOR Employees' Annual Gift-Giving Activity. At around 9 PM, I took Inaki to the Capitol to watch a fireworks display and to check out the other entries in "Zoom In," a photo contest sponsored by Councilor Kristian R. Ablan. He took a photo of me and Inaki (here shown "showing off" his Kuya Jack's entry).
We then walked to Total Department Store, about five blocks away, to buy some last-minute presents.
December 18, 2007. It was PAGCOR's Christmas Party, preceded by the awards night and dinner for the 20-Year Loyalty Awardees. We decided to get a room at the Fort since the party for the kids would be starting at 9 PM. Tito, one of Raul's golf buddies, asked me to be his date at the dinner but we were late as usual, so all the seats at his table were taken.
I sat with Romy, another compadre, who didn't have his wife with him. The table was literally brimming with food – it was a P1,500 per plate dinner – with lots more to spare as several awardees didn't bring their partners along.
The menu: Clear Mushroom Soup, Cold Cuts With Seaweeds and Century Eggs, Spicy Pork, Lechon, Sauteed Mushrooms With Broccoli, Steamed Lapu-Lapu in Soy Sauce, Yang Chow Fried Rice, and about five other dishes I wasn't able to taste. I was stuffed!
The kids played a few games and everyone went home with prizes. Seth and Sabrina were already drowsy so I had to take them back to the hotel room while the boys and Raul stayed on until the wee hours of the morning.
The next day we had buffet breakfast at the Coffee Shop and the kids and I were in the pool till 12.
We checked out at 2 PM while Raul stayed on for a round of golf.
December 15, 2007. Gift-Giving by MMSU Students for preschoolers and special children of Shamrock and A.P. Santos Elementary Schools.
December 11, 2007. Inaki was a contestant in their English Fest Declamation Contest and Sabrina played the part of the "Sun" in a short skit entitled "The Wind and the Sun." Three days before, her teacher was SM'ing me about the costume and I kept ignoring them. I thought to myself, all I had to do was purchase about three yards of shiny gold material, cut a hole for the head, and have her wear it as a robe. How difficult could that be?
But I forget this is Laoag, where movies are shown two months late. The manangs at the shops didn't know what the heck "lame" was. I tried to idiotically describe to them an alternative material – "Yung sinusuot ng mga bading..." and all they gave me were blank stares. Well, at least there was one who pitied me enough to point me to a textile store. "Adeng, pumunta ka sa Scooty's."
I asked about a dozen people where I could find "Scooty's" and finally got to a nondescript hole-in-the-wall Binondo-style shop that's nowhere near complete but at least had the shiny gold material I was looking for. I looked up, and painted on the wall in capital letters was "Scoty's."
I bought Sabrina a small tiara (which she also wears while playing on our street, while eating dinner, etc.) and made a sash with the word "SUN" on which I painstakingly glued red glitter. To complete her ensemble, I also bought gold slippers for her and even cut out a sun from illustration board, again with the word "SUN" on it, just in case there would be cretins watching.
As soon as I stepped through the school gates, I bumped into a kid in gold face paint, wearing an elaborately fashioned sun costume, complete with 3-dimensional rays coming out of his head. Man, don't the other moms have work to keep busy with?
We (Raul, Inaki, Sabrina and I) had a quick lunch of kare-kare, stuffed crabs, and camaron rebosado at the La Preciosa Restaurant on Rizal Street. Raul had to leave the declamation contest-watching to me because he was on the 2nd shift. So off to the school we went again, but as soon as I turned the engine off, Inaki asks me, "Mom, where's my hardhat?" Arrghhh!!!
I had to go back home, but I didn't have the keys to the house. I asked Sabrina and Seth not to leave our bedroom and even turned on the air conditioner to make sure they wouldn't leave the room. It also ensured that they wouldn't hear me.
I phoned Seth from our landlady's phone, got the frigging hardhat, and drove back to school. Inaki was probably the fourth contestant, and by then my ears were already bleeding from hearing "Dirty Hands" by John P. Delaney over and over. When it was Inaki's turn, Raul suddenly rings me and asks me to coordinate their gift-giving activity. Perfect timing, as always. I almost missed Inaki's turn.
It was his first time to join a declamation contest (well, he actually joined one when he was 2 ½ years old, but that doesn't count) so he was understandably nervous. He stopped at one point and the audience started making this "humming" noise, but he was able to carry on and give a powerful ending. No prize this time around, but I assured him it was not bad at all for a beginner.
