Farewell 2013, Hello 2014!

It had been a difficult year for Filipinos this 2013 as natural disasters - with floods, earthquakes and the biggest typhoon to ever hit the planet - and pork barrel scams but, it was also a year where our inner strength was tested and prevailed.

It was also a beautiful year with many Filipina candidates getting to the top five, if not, winning international beauty titles: Miss World, Miss International, Miss Universe, Miss Supranational, Miss Earth and the last one - held today, 31st December, the Miss Tourism International.

In my small corner of the world, I look back at 2013 and feel thankful that I was blessed with more good things than bad; enjoyed more happy moments than sad and had been healthier, richer and glad.  I only hope 2014 would be better and that my family and I continue to receive abundance, joy and good health this coming year.

I've bought the traditional 13 round fruits for our table and will assemble them when I get home.  I've got to prepare food for the Noche Buena tonight and I've got lots of round, meaty, rich things on our table.  Then there are the sweet stuff - to ensure life's sweetness, I guess - ready to be served after our meal.

The house has been vacuumed and new sheets are on the beds, pots and pans are ready to be banged to drive out evil spirits and welcome the new year in.  Even my car had gotten a full tank to make sure it is "full" as the new year arrives.  Meanwhile, my pre-teen is excited to jump at the beginning of the new year to ensure she grows a few inches more in the coming year.

A sweet bubbly is ready for the toast to our good health, and pockets have been filled with notes and coins to ensure prosperity as well as good fortune in 2014.

Tonight we will open the hopes and wishes we have sealed when 2013 came in to see if we have accomplished what we have planned out and write a new batch of wishes and targets for the new year.  This has been a tradition in our family and one we continue to do as it helps us evaluate the past and aim new plans for the future.  We always have a good laugh at what we had set out to do at the beginning of the year and the reality of whether we have indeed done it or not and why so.

I think of loved ones who have moved on or gone ahead and wish they are happy wherever they are.  I think of loved ones and friends in bad situations and pray they have better ones as the new year comes.  I think of loved ones who are in good places and wish they have more to share next year.  I remember friends from long ago and recent times and wish them and their families well.

Another year to get older, wiser, kinder.  Another chance to laugh more, read often, forgive.  Another time to meet new people, keep in touch with the old and learn new things.  I am afraid and excited of what the new year will be but I hope it will be a year with more celebrations of joy and love and peace all year-round.  Happy New Year to us all!

Christmas Traditions - Monito/Manita or Kris Kringle

Reading through my old blogs about Christmas, I’ve realized that I have not shared the many Christmas traditions we have in our family to the world wide web (not that it matters, but I just love to blab), and so here’s one of the many things we used to do as kids with our parents and grandparents:  The Monito/Monita with a twist.

Starting from 15^th December, the day before Christmas officially starts in the Philippines with the Simbang Gabi (Dawn Mass for 9 days), we create code names for ourselves – my parents, my brothers, my grandmother and any house help we had at that time – using our dilapidated but in good working condition typewriter so there is no chance one would be able to guess the real person using their handwriting.

Names would be as silly a Snoopy, Knight Rider, Superman, Barbie, etc.   Based on past experiences, Barbie does not necessarily mean the real person behind the alias is a girl.  It could be someone trying hard to throw you off!  So on 15^th December, mom or dad cuts an A4 paper in 8 equal parts and each one, in privacy with the typewriter types his or her codename/alias, rolls it and drops it on an empty fish bowl.  Then, when everyone else has done it, we all take out a rolled paper off the bowl and secretly read the name on it.  If one get his own name, he calls “again!” and everyone rolls their papers and drops it back in to pick a new one, until everyone has absolutely another alias not their own in their hands.  The key is not to reveal who it is you got so no one know anything.

Then a huge box, covered with colourful Christmas wrappers of old is brought in and placed by the landing on the stairs next to the altar and the Christmas tree.  Then a poster-sized paper is posted on the wall showing the kinds of gifts one would be giving their secret “monita or monito” (this was maybe from Spanish, monito means a small toy?) – the beneficiary of their presents.  Again to keep it more fun, never reveal your real alias as well as who is it that you picked so the surprise intensifies as Christmas day approaches.

So from 16^th December to 24^th December you give your “beneficiary” 9 gifts depending on the theme.  We usually start with “Something Red” and end up with “Something Big” for the 24^th.  This means that on Christmas Eve, you have 9 presents waiting for you in the big box under the tree!  What could be more exciting than that?  Well the revelation of who you are and who your beneficiary is, of course!  By day 3 we would all be guessing who is who but no one would reveal anything.  So the mystery keeps everyone excited.

One time, my secret giver was dad and he didn’t put any gift in the box until the very end.  I was so worried as I checked each day for a present for me, but of course no one knew it was me, and found that all the presents there were for someone else.  I didn’t know dad was trying to find out who was “Hulk Hogan”, my alias that year because he wanted to know the real gender and was figuring out who was looking sad when they looked in the box and not finding any present for themselves.  But everyone got so good at secret-keeping and acting that on Christmas Eve we are usually fairly surprised about the true identities of our family members.  Imagine my grandmother had been “Spiderman” and my youngest brother, who would usually go for a popular cartoon or Disney character, was “Frank Sinatra” whom we all thought was dad!  One time, everyone thought I was “Charlie Brown” (being a Snoopy fan) when it was actually mom!  We had fun thinking up common enough names but not too common that we would easily be identified with it.   Often when we watch TV shows or movies and a cool name comes up, we’d all laugh and say that could be a good alias and usually it does get used by one of us: Homer Simpson, Alf, Michael Jackson…even Chuck Norris!  These names and many more have all been used through the years.

The gifts are usually everyday practical things that a guy or girl could use.  It could be anything from 20 pesos up to 50 pesos.  Usually at the last, the “Something Big”, we could splurge a little to make it more special.  

Some ideas for the “somethings” are:

•  Something Red:  anything red like a hairbrush, comb, t-shirt, face-towel…silly one would be a huge bottle of ketchup or a can of tomato or spaghetti sauce!
•  Something Green: same as red but of course in green; green bath soaps or towels, stationery sets in green, etc.

• Something White: cotton buds, a huge roll of kitchen or toilet tissue, a pillow (usually can also be used for something soft)

•  Something Hard: can openers, book ends, paper-weights (can also be used for something heavy)

• Something Soft: face towels, stuffed toys, socks…I once got a huge pack of marshmallows!

• Something Shiny: metallic things like key chains, stationery sets with glitters, penlights, flashlights, anything that shines really.

• Something Heavy: dumb bells, packets of pasta (from the same person who gave spaghetti sauce!), an atlas or dictionary (days before the Internet), big bottles of shampoos or baby powder (that are usually also something big)

• Something Round: soaps, balls, bath products, I got a magic-eight ball one year J

• Something Big: huge pillows, huge plush toys, bath products in big bottles or jars, once I got a huge cassette player!

Some years we’d change the game a bit and thrown in Something Long or Something Pointy or Something Sticky in the list.  You've got to be creative and come up with gifts that could be used by both genders as well as meet the 'required "something"' from the list.

For me and my brothers, we have to also be creative in earning some cash for December.  We usually sell ice-candies during summer or sell our old newspapers and used bottles, as well as save a percentage off our daily allowances to have enough for our Monito/Monita at home.  Mom and dad would also give us a bit of extra cash to help us with our presents.  But no matter what you get or what you give, it is such a joy to open your presents together being your very own Santa Claus to one another.   We spend the hours just after midnight revealing who we are, opening our presents and laughing at what we got or what we gave away.

My grandmother and dad have both passed on and my mom and brothers live in different homes with their own families but the memories of those Christmases and the joy we had in giving and receiving continue to warm my Christmases up to this day.

It is not too late to start your own Christmas traditions with your family or the tribe that you live with.  Why not start your own kind of traditions today.  Happy Christmas and a blessed New Year to all.