Christmas Eve Peculiarities

It’s been a long time since i’ve had noche buena (midnight celebration).

You see, before i was married and before my family moved out of the country, we used to wait up until midnight to open gifts. My mom would be busy preparing various dishes (enough to feed the neighbors), and when the clock stroke 12 we would all gather around the Christmas tree and take turns opening our gifts. When all the wrappings were torn, we would head to the dining table filled with all the traditional Christmas dishes and happily eat and chat. Even those couple of years my sister and i were left by ourselves, we continued the tradition and cooked (well my sister did and i bought…) our favorite dishes, but still enough to feed the neighbors *grin*.

When i got married, i realized that not everyone celebrated Christmas like we did. My husband’s family would sleep through Christmas eve and celebrate on Christmas day itself. I always feel a little sad to go without the festivities im so used to. That’s why this Christmas, i was happy our cousins visited and brought back the Christmas eve gathering, even if it was in a very simple way.

A simple snack of delicious ensaymada (a Filipino sweet pastry) and micro-ground, instant Starbucks coffee that tastes like freshly brewed coffee.

I didn’t think it could be possible (the instant coffee i mean, to taste so good), wonderfully peculiar indeed!