Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve (or more of the day before Christmas) won't be complete without all the last minute hoopla. I was somehow improving this year as I completed all my shopping by the 23rd. All that's left was to wrap the gifts and I would have been done early as well only if I didn't run out of boxes. So today, I was set to just drop by quickly at SM to buy some boxes and that's it. But of course, the day didn't go as planned. Of all days, Gabby was down with the flu and my sis had her bout of back pain which pretty much made her unable to get up :( The driver didn't show up as well so all the things that my mom and sis were supposed to do (read: go to the mall and grocery for last minute shopping) landed on me and my brother.

Let's just say that my originally planned 10-minute trip to the mall turned out to be 4 hours. We had to go all the way to Town to get a cake from Sugarhouse for tonight's dessert, buy croissants for Christmas breakfast - which took us about 2 hours since we had to wait for Delifrance to bake a new batch, go to the grocery to buy ingredients for Noche Buena and of course, get my boxes at National. Whew!

It was already past 3pm when we finally got home and I was just so tired that I had to take a nap. About an hour later, I woke up and was set to finish my gift wrapping when my brother called me to get dressed since we had to pick up the Roast Beef we ordered from Almon Marina - again at Town. Effort!

Finally by 7pm, I finished wrapping all my gifts. Good thing we open our gifts on Christmas morning so at least di naman sayang ang pag-wrap ko. They'll be able to stay under the tree for a couple of hours. Hehehe.

As always, it was my job to set the table for Noche Buena and as I placed the last plate setting, I can't help but feel sad that the head of the table is now left vacant - that's where my dad used to sit and this would be our first Christmas without him.

Compared to the previous Noche Buenas we've had, we decided to cut down on the menu this year and just keep it simple (in a way, it's in keeping as well with my dad not being around anymore - he's the one who gets all excited seeing the table full with food).

We had Roast Beef from Almon Marina (our Noche Buena staple):

My mom's Parma-Ham pasta:

And my Caesar Salad (yup, I made the dressing from scratch!):

For dessert, it's Sugarhouse's Concorde cake which lived up as being their bestseller - 3 layers of vanilla chiffon cake with chocolate mouse filling in between and covered with chocolate meringue...sinfully delicious!

With my tummy bursting full from Noche Buena, I wasn't ready to go to bed yet so I called up Lec and we ended up talking for about an hour. I asked Ron to give him my gift already earlier (a Rockband set for his PS3) and I'm happy that he wasn't expecting it at all (as if I could let Christmas pass without getting him anything). He really liked it! My Christmas surprise was a success! :)

How we wished we're together for the holidays. I told him that Santa didn't answer my wish though I've been a very good girl this year...and Lec was like, 'Yeah, I was waiting for him to come to put me in a box and send me to you...' Awwww...if only it was that simple! Being apart really sucks especially during this season...but at least in our own little ways, we were able to still make this season special for each other despite the distance. Talking to him just made me miss him even more but at the same time, it completed my Christmas eve :)

I better get some sleep...have to be up early tomorrow to open the gifts, then off to our annual Christmas lunch and dinner family reunions. Merry Christmas everyone! :)