December 2012 with Cousins

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When I was younger, what I loved most about Christmas was the annual pilgrimage (?) of our relatives to Davao.  Wherever they are, they would come to Davao, for our annual Christmas reunion.  I actually grew up with this tradition.  It stopped when our Amah died.  It was a bit lonely at first but then I got used to the idea.  And then, they started to come back, bit by bit.

Last Christmas, almost ll of the  came over to visit.  Aunts and cousins from Zamboanga, and a cousin and his family from Singapore.  Before they started arriving, you can already feel the excitement as my Be-i (youngest aunt) was already busy preparing our itinerary.  She was of course very busy planning our overnight stay at Samal.  Where to stay?  What to bring?  How much will it cost?  Hahaha..  She was really a busy bee.

We had our overnight stay at Villa Amparo.  We had dinners at an aunt's place and at our place.  My cousins even requested for the spicy lechon from Beko's Biik.  We also had a day tour at Paradise Island (nabitin sa Villa Amparao).  We ate a lot and shopped a lot too!  Ooooh, I just love Christmas!  Who doesn't, right?

And I discovered, cousins can be substitute baby sitters! Hahaha.. My kids adored my cousins because the latter loved playing with them- from their toys, favorite TV shows, and the beach!  Our kids would wake up wanting to go to Ah-i's place, or when my cousins slept at our place, they woke up very early and knocked on my brother's room (which is now a playroom/ bedroom).

Cookfest!  Cooked ala Korean style at my Aunt's house.
If you don't cook, you can't eat!

See what I was talking about?  Substitute baby sitters!
But then, their short stay has to end.  They went back to their respective places for the new year.  Sad right? But my cousin from Singapore says, the bonding moments we had are  always something to look forward to.  Can't wait for this year's annual pilgrimage.

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