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the holidays

every year i make it a point to go home for Christmas. i book my ticket ahead of time and i file my leaves as early as october. it's just not Christmas if i don't spend it in ilocos with my family. on Christmas day we gather at my maternal grandparents' house for a sumptuous Christmas lunch. after lunch we open gifts and after that it's time for the neighborhood 'palaro'. we host one every year and every year the children just keep coming. the day after Christmas we troop to Dibua which is just out of the city limits for the Tercia -- a tradition that we keep for as long as i can remember with the farmers who tend our lands (what was left after agrarian reform that is which doesn't amount to much really). every year it's the same menu - tinola, pansit and roasted mudfish - and yet we keep coming back for it. this year we started a new tradition for the Monroy grandchildren and spouses. Dec. 27 we shall gather for an annual gift-giving which includes lunch of course and all that it entails. this year we did all the cooking which was fun. it was a moment to bond with my cousins and their spouses. i hope we keep this new tradition that we started.

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