Happy Holidays!

With every birthday, holiday, or special occasion that's happened in 2020, my first thought has been one of gratitude and Christmas was no exception. I'm so thankful that my "immediate" family and I have found safe ways to be together throughout the pandemic. I'm also thankful for the amazing friends in my life that have continued to stay constant through texts, FaceTime, and good old-fashioned mail. Because of all that, Christmas ended up being a really beautiful and fun, albeit different, day in spite of everything.  

Christmas was spent at the house with my "immediate" family aka my pandemic pod and Sunday lunch crew (dad, aunt, uncle, two cousins, cousin-in-law, and baby nephew). Even with just the 8 of us, we had so much food and spend most of the day snacking and eating everything. My contribution to the meal was shockingly not red velvet cupcakes but buko salad which is a Filipino fruit and coconut dessert dish. 

Side note about this dish: It's something my mom usually made for special occasions. Right before she passed away, I asked her for her recipe so I could make it for her at least once, which I was able to do. And I've made it a couple more times since then. When my aunt called me to do discuss food for Christmas, she told me to make it and I'm glad she did. It was a tiny but nice way to have something of mom's on Christmas, especially since she's been on my mind a lot these last few weeks. Also, it's usually "the adults" who make Filipino food for our family gatherings so now I officially feel like a grown-up 😂

Some of my Christmas presents from friends, my dad, and myself! I opened most of them Christmas morning with the exception of Alexa. We FaceTimed each other to open our gifts at the same time. But seriously feeling like the luckiest gal!

Then the rest of the day was just hanging out and opening presents. A huge part was dedicated to just watching baby Ian open his gifts. The holidays were more fun because we all got to experience it through his eyes. Even though he obviously won't remember his first Christmas, the rest of us will definitely cherish the memory of it and spoiling him with all the presents. Then our other cousin and his wife had a present for Ian too and stopped by to drop it off. It was so good to see them and it was warm enough outside that we could hang out and spend at least a little bit of the day together in person. But a couple hours later, all the cousins had a Zoom call to do our Secret Santa! I'm so glad we didn't let the pandemic stop us from keeping up with this tradition because Christmas just isn't the same without it. It was honestly, still a lot of fun even virtually. 

So, all in all, Christmas 2020 may have been different but it was still a success!

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Hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday too!