Here's to a New Year of happy travels and bonding opportunities

The recent Christmas and New year season was probably one of the most fun but tiring holiday seasons I've experienced.

- Razzle-Daza

It started with a Christmas eve lunch at my sister Penny's house, and was the first time all my mom's nine grandchildren were present: Gabbie, Paolo, Mikey, Patrick, Peter, Em, Maya, Alli and Miggy. Because of this, mom was extra generous with her "aguinaldo" for her apos.

After playing "Pinoy Henyo" and "Grab the Cup," the kids asked lola if she could sponsor the "sandok" challenge, the game where you get to keep any money you scoop out of a large frying pan while blindfolded. Penny suggested we cut out paper with various denominations written on them from P50 to P1,000. It was hilarious seeing the blindfolded kids trying to scoop money from the paellera and seeing their faces after they saw how much money they got! But it was the look on mom's face that was priceless whenever she had to pay off a grandchild with thousands of pesos after his/her turn.

The second gathering was Christmas eve dinner at my place with my stepchildren and Mike Planas, the father of my kids. After a hearty dinner of chicken relleno, angus steak and pasta, the kids also wanted to play games. A round of "Pinoy Henyo," "Name that Tune," and "Guess the Word" played by my kids, stepsons Migui and Miko, and Miko's girlfriend Bea made it an extra enjoyable evening.

The third get-together was the Daza reunion/Christmas day lunch in the home of my cousin Dondi Baltazar. My cousin, Fr. Fidel Orendain, SDB said Mass and afterwards, lunch was served. As expected, food was overflowing. There was inihaw na baboy, talong sa gata, the yummiest kare-kare cooked by Nina Daza-Puyat, lamb chops, steamed fish, Russian salad, adobong pusit, cuapao from Sandy Daza, pancit Malabon, lumpiang bangus and ubod, and the "piece de resistance," Jollibee Chickenjoy from yours truly (my annual food contribution). There were lots of cakes and pastries as well, too many to mention.