Feliciano's 2010 Christmas Celebration

I am very lucky that I was able to celebrate Christmas with family yearly.  Last year, the whole family was together in the Philippines and this year, I joined my mum and my sister in the UK to celebrate Christmas.  

UK Christmas Celebration is very much different to the one I used to have in the Philippines.  For one, the traditions and practices are different and two, we weren't surrounded by relatives.  In the Philippines, we go to church for 9 consecutive nights to hear the mass.  In the UK, that 9 consecutive nights of mass is compacted to one.  We have people "carolling" at our doorsteps, in the UK, we go to church to hear Christmas Carols.  At a certain age, you don't expect to receive gifts from family and friends.  We give out gifts here and exchange Christmas cards.  At 6AM, my relatives would bang on our door announcing Christmas, at 6AM, we were still in bed.  The practice maybe different but the thought of spending Christmas with the family remains the same.  

For Christmas 2010, we prepared food together, went to church together and had meal together.  The next day, we opened presents.  I love the small intimate family meal.  We may not be surrounded by everyone but at least we get to spend quality time together.  I've always wanted to have a family meal all dressed up and I finally had my wish after 13 years of dreaming.  LOL!  

The simple Chistmas table setting that gave me sleepless nights.  I had so much ideas and with lack of funds, I end up with this one. :)

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Mum's Pre Birthday Celebration

Whilst having my dinner party with my two gorgeous girls Darlene and Donna, my mum told us that she wanted a birthday party for herself as she hasn't experienced "blowing candles" on a birthday cake before.  She is turning 53.  Poor mum.  I, being the eldest, took this as a challenge(like Barney would say, Challenge accepted.  LOL).  I asked her for the party theme, she said she had no idea.  She suggested Christmas.  I told her that it is her birthday and it's not a Christmas Party.  I know that my mum loves flowers and I want her to wear coloured clothes(she is the black and white type) so I emailed everyone to come in coloured clothes.  I chose the shabby chic theme.  I am feeling Cath Kidston, Emma Bridgewater and Rachel Ashwell.  The colour scheme is very subtle and I can use lots and lots of flowers.

I am glad to report that everything went apart from people arriving late.  I am a controlling b*tch and I feel uncomfortable with people not arriving on time.  Plus my friends had to wait for an hour before they were able to eat.  On the plus side, I am happy that everyone was very helpful.  I emailed everyone asking if they can bring food.  Most of them responded with Yes.  I've never seen my nuclear family entertain people before so this is like a first for us.  I was a bit annoyed in the beginning as I don't know what to do(controlling b*tch alert!) but I was able to relax after drinking. No wonder people drink wine or champagne when entertaining a big group of people.  I now know how it feels like.  :P

To everyone who come last night, Big thanks to you all!  It made my mum happy.  She now had a video of her blowing the candle.  Thanks for celebrating the big day with us.  Mum turns 53 on the 24th of December. Another celebration perhaps?  :P

 (click on the photo to enlarge)

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The weather forecast is right after all

I woke up to my sister complaining about not wanting to go to work today.  In my disoriented state, I asked her why.  She said it's snowing hard.  I stopped believing in weather forecast but I couldn't believe it when I saw this:

PS

It is snowing still.  I love it.  I just need someone to take my photo and I am not counting on my sister.  

No wonder it is uber cold last night.

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Snow

I love watching the snow.  We don't get this in the Third World.  :P

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FW Christmas Party

Another Day, Another Party.  

I've been social butterflying lately and I love it.  There's nothing more I look forward to during this season than dressing up, partying and eating.  I love eating but I am too scared that I will put on weight to the point that I won't be able to use my nice clothes.  Size 8 is my ceiling.  I am young, I have all my old age to be on the meaty side.  :P

Normally, filos will hold parties on a house(owned by filos) which can accomodate at least 20 people.  This means that we can stay all night long doing whatever we want.  This also means that people can pop in anytime they want which results to programme being delayed.  We don't have to clean up after the party too.  A total plus.  Haha!  We did it differently this time.  We rented out a place.  I really liked this idea as I don't like staying for too long in a place.  I like knowing when things are gonna end.  

A lot of things happened tonight.  We ate lots(I can't stop eating tonight), sang karaoke for a bit(filos can't leave their Karaokes at home), played Wii's just dance, give out gifts and took home left overs.  We don't have to worry about food for the next 2 days.  Bringing home left overs is so normal and is an okay practice for filos.  It's very similar to people going on hols and taking something back for everyone.  Don't be surprised if your filo friend hand you a doggy bag over.  :P 

My brains not functioning well.  Going to sleep now.  I hope everyone had a fantastic Friday.  :)

BTW, someone cried upon losing in the just dance battle.  I kept an eye on her the whole evening waiting for her to throw her tantrums.  She kept me entertained.

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Christmas Carols

This is what I've been going on about.  I know, I made a big fuss about being the Virgin Mary and managed to convince 2 of my girlfriends to go to the show where in fact, I only appeared for less than 5 seconds.  I like being an important b*tch.  Hahaha!  

My church is very diverse.  The Tamils, The Venezuelans, The English Folk Group, The Filipinos and the Christian Band performed tonight.  I was expecting for the Africans to perform.  I wonder why they didn't participate.  The Christmas Carols lasted for an hour but it was so much fun to watch.  I like to sing in different languages although I don't really know what it meant.  After the Carols, I saw people that I used to work with and exchanged few words.  I am happy that they were able to recognise me despite the massive change in appearance and despite not speaking with them for long.

To everyone who came tonight, big thanks to you all.  I hope you had fun.  See you again next year?(although I doubt that I'm gonna be there)

 click on the photo to enlarge.  :)

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Merry Christmas Hats

My UK friends and I like to do things with a theme.  We have a high heels only policy when we go clubbing, we do coloured themes depending on the occasion and we really like to dress up and coordinate.  We used to check each other's outfit and shop together prior to any occasion.  We just like the drama.  We like to make everything special.

I wanted to have a proper party with friends this year.  If I were back home, I will be meeting up with friends in the shopping centers for dinner.  That's all.  Since our UK flat's layout is good for entertaining, a home cooked meal is sensible.  I didn't cook, Donna did.  Darlene and I just helped her out.  She is the best cook amongst us 3 and who am I to interfere with her talent?  :P  We met up at 4PM for food shopping.  Cooking was done by half past 6 I think.  Mum arrived few minutes before starving and trying to ruin the dinner by eating by herself.  Arghhhhh!  She completely missed the whole point of party - eating together, catching up and having fun.  

After the dinner, we sang Christmas songs.  I was very very pitchy singing 12 days of Christmas.  I think Donna and Darlene recorded me.  I just hope that this won't end up in youtube and ruin my career in singing.  LOL!  We exchanged gifts and cards for the finale.  We only drew people on the same night and I helped Donna picked out her gift the previous day and guess who she picked?  ME!

PS

Lovelies, anyone living in Reading and interested in Christmas Carols(and seeing me play as Mary), be there at St. James at 7PM tom.  It's not just filos performing tom night, there are Venezuelans, British etc too.  No need to buy tickets.  See you there!  :)

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