Christmas past and present

When Mama was still alive, our traditional Christmas noche buena spread would include: her stellar slow-cooked mechado or caldereta, whole chicken cooked in our ancient turbo broiler, ham basted for hours with pineapple juice, pancit or spaghetti or both, and hot chocolate.

- TONYO CRUZ

For dessert, we would have macaroni salad and several llaneras of leche flan. We might also have a cake, or a bilao of kakanin.

As part of adulting in a household presided by a teacher, my sister and I would be helping in the cooking and practically taking over the cooking chores. My sister could quickly cook pancit canton (not the instant kind), or a spaghetti. I might do the turbo chicken and the ham, and would always prepare the hot chocolate.

In the lead up to noche buena, Mama would have redecorated the entire house starting September to October, and have it nearly complete by November (with brief pause for Undas). She was obviously preparing for Christmas when she passed in October 2022. She had started putting up her decorations. We saw that she had brought out her green and red table covers, linen, place mats, and other decors. They were in a box, ready to be installed.