Christmas Dinner

Every year, my wife and her girlfriends from her elementary and high school days at CSA would get-together before Christmas to have dinner. The married ones would bring their husbands, and the single ones would drag their current boyfriends. It had always been a fun event. Each year was different. One time, it was in one of her friend’s house. On another time, it was at a restaurant in High Street. This year though, since her friend F. and her husband M. recently bought a house on sale in Paranaque, a few houses away from the apartment that we’re renting, and since most of her friends currently reside in the South, they decided to have the Christmas dinner there.

The couple had their backyard “pimped,” complete with tables and chairs covered with white linens, scented citronella candles to drive away pesky insects, crystal glasses and silver cutlery, and a spot light to boot! Good thing it didn’t rain that night! Of course, we brought our current favorite cake from Conti’s, Frozen Mango Tart! There was also this wonderful salad made of fresh greens, mangoes, tomatoes, red and green peppers, and crunchy “croutons” made of steamed and then fried hito. My wife plans to recreate that on our Niche Buena. There was some steamed lapu-lapu that was equally pleasing, and since it’s very cold dining al fresco at night, there was my favorite sinigang na hipon! And while this wonderful spread doesn’t exactly “match,” such is the outcome of potluck dinners all drowned by a bottle, or two, of Asti!

There’s nothing like meeting up with old friends and talking about the recession to the mundane every day things. From the many get-togethers that we’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of, I think this is one of the best. I wish I had a remote control to rewind back to that night. Good food plus good company!

First photo taken by Kumareng Grace.