Christmas Bonding To Sawa

The Christmas re-union of my Ateneo friends was set for 15 December, 2011 at Ann and Raffy Vera's home in Paranaque. Everybody agreed to be there for lunch. Of course, those who weren't equipped with vehicles would have to rely on Ann's good graces. So the pick up point was at Glorietta  where Palou, Gemma and myself were to wait for Ann.

I had purposely skipped my gym session that morning as I busily wrapped presents and prepared my potluck dish. I did get there five minutes past eleven in the morning. I was constantly in touch with Gemma but it was Palou I saw first. Then Ann came along and all three of us walked to Rustan's for our sodas. Gemma was standing at the Glorietta annex across Ascot. 

Ann was driving towards her home and three quarters along the way, Emma calls Gemma to tell her she was in a fender bender and she was going to be late... her lumpia and sylvanas were going to be late with her was what it meant. Once at Ann's we started preparing for the lunch and setting up dishes in serving platters. 

I brought my tinapa pasta with Asian and salted egg sauce. Ann made calderetta. Lorraine brought chicken thighs with mashed potato cooked by son Francis, Gemma brought  crispy Pata from Gerry's Grill. Ruby was going to be late as well, we learned.

This was such a loquacious group... we were expecting a lot of chatter and catching up to do. It was the first time I was seeing Emma since she arrived from the States. Our topics ranged from religion to politics to romance to spiritualism to birth control to sex... we talked about everything!!! This in between mouthfuls of food.  Then Emma and Ruby arrived and we ate some more, had tea, told more stories and voraciously ate dessert.

Then Palou starts this activity on virtues and it was such an eye-opener for everyone present. We laughed. We cried. We shared. We acknowledged. We eventually ended up grateful for having each other. Before we knew it we were already exchanging presents. Lorraine and Marlon eventually had to leave and those of us who were left behind chatted some more. Before we knew it, it was nearly eleven in the evening. We had stayed there for 12 hours.

We left fully sated and happy and planning when the next gathering would take place... This was just too much fun!!!