Life is so… whatever.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, ever play with fire again.

I will never, EVER play with fire again.

Yes, I typed that all one by one, to make sure I learn the lesson.

PS. To my dear Bestie, I can never ever thank you enough especially for tonight. After processing on my own (which I needed), you helped me process even more (which apparently I needed too) and move on a little bit. And again I am reminded na meant to be talaga tayo dahil sa reactions mo, haha.

…is is the feeling of sadness and a bit of emptiness after the festivities are over and everyone’s gone their separate ways.

I don’t come from a rich family, but I come from a pretty close-knit one. Christmas celebrations have always been very simple but I love it because it’s one of the only two times each year that we get together as one big extended family. Even though noticeable na pahirap na nang pahirap ang buhay as seen from the ever-dwindling aguinaldo and gifts, it allows us to focus on what’s more important: family (besides of course remembering the birth of Christ). We may not have thousands and thousands of aguinaldo or piles and piles of presents, but we make sure to have fun and be together as we celebrate Christmas.

The togetherness lasted a little longer this year as some relatives stayed over here at home after coming from Nueva Ecija, but since last night it’s been just the immediate family again. No more playing with noisy and hyperactive nieces and nephews, no more listening to titas arguing over who looks less old (LOL), no more bonding with cousins. The house is silent once more.

Oh well. At least many of them live in Metro Manila now, so we see each other more often. I actually see them while school’s in session, unlike before when I was a kid, I only got to see them during Christmas and summer vacations. Living closer to each other, plus the wonders of technology, have made me closer to my relatives (at least on my dad’s side anyway; my mother’s side is a different story). But then again that’s also one of the reasons why I miss them more now. I can’t wait for my Lola’s 90th birthday na tuloy (which is in a month and I hear they’re planning a get-together since she’s turning 90 and all, so yay!).

Ok, tama na nga ang drama. Sorry my post-Christmas post turned out this way, LOL.

…the joy of a child on Christmas day.
(Taken by me while playing with the kids on Christmas morning. This one in particular loves the camera so much and happily kept posing, LOL.)

(Yes, technically it shouldn’t be the photo of the day because it wasn’t taken today, but while I was looking through this year’s Christmas pictures, this one reminded me of how much happiness there is in life despite all the pain. Good thing I saw it, because I really needed that today.)

Today didn’t turn out to be as dark as I had feared. Maybe I am moving on.

However, it’s taking a lot of time and effort to get over my playing with fire incident. Must every hurt be this way???

Just for today, let me remember.

It’s not so easy to forget completely, you know.

 If you play with fire, you’ll get burned.

Sabi ni Rob sometimes you can play with fire and not get burned, and that’s true, but this time I got burned. I should’ve known better.

(And no, don’t bother asking because I’m not telling.)

PS. Christmas updates soon, hopefully before the New Year. Things are still busy over here at my corner of the world as there are balikbayans PLUS other relatives to be entertained.

“Hi, I’m bored. What’s your name?”

Can somebody please tell my dad that when talking to someone over the telephone, you don’t necessarily have to speak as if you were talking to that someone in person exept with the same distance between you??? The person on the other end can hear you just fine in your normal voice, thank you very much. Seeing as the phone is beside the computer, though, I can hear him more loudly than I would like.
But then, my dad shouts (angrily) all the time, so I guess that is his normal voice.

Also, it’s so funny how he sounds so fake and plastic on the phone. And I know he really is being fake and plastic because as soon as he puts down the phone he mutters under his breath about not wanting to go to the party he was invited to over the phone, or whatever complaint he has about the recent conversation.

Sigh. Welcome to life with a 50-something-year-old man wih the patience of a two-year-old.

CLICK HERE!

Sorry it took so long, tinamad ako eh there were so many eh. Partida ha, I stopped taking pictures when it started to get dark, since my camera is such a loser and any attempt to photograph whatever was happening at Palma Hall (from my vantage point at least) would result in blurry/dark pictures.

I brought my sister along with me para may kasama ako, haha. We came early to watch Cam dance to Naughty Girl, then ate a late lunch and made tambay at the Sunken Garden, where I pretended to be artsy-fartsy as usual and photographed the kids playing there. (Not that I was successful, of course.)

…Aaaand of course, I photographed my happy red nails! :D

After a couple of hours of waiting, finally the parade started.

Though the “lanterns” weren’t really lanterns (buti pa sa UPM, lanterns talaga), they were still pretty and amazing (syempre, puro galing Fine Arts. Parang, FA+others… haha joke.) to watch. This is one of my favorites:

…Kasi may hydraulics pa kunyari, harhar. :P (Seryoso. Nung dumaan yan sa tapat namin, niyugyog sya nung mga may dala ng float haha)

We couldn’t get a good view of the performances, because AS was so crowded.

So I just photographed them habang naglalakad, kaya walang pictures of them actually doing something. :P

After that we went to Quezon Hall hoping for a better view, but well syempre puno na rin when we got there, so never mind.

I was waiting for the fireworks (may fireworks na actually nung pinepresent pa lang yung lanterns, but it turned out to be not from UP, haha. Everyone –including me– whipped out their phones/cameras to take pictures/videos, only to realize na hindi pa pala yun.), but Ate Jet had something to give me (Christmas gift yay!) so I went to Vinzons Hall where she was. I still got to see the fireworks, but only the higher ones and syempre better sana yung view kung mas malapit. But yay fireworks!

And that was the end of my first ever UP Diliman (or UP, for that matter) lantern parade. It was tiring (my sister would probably have killed me for making her walk so much, if only she knew how to get home by herself, haha) but fun. Next year I am so making sure to get a good view na. And to bring chairs. Haha.