Christmas Rituals

For the past five years, since JB and Gianina left for the US (where Adrian was born), it’s just been the four of us—Tony, JC, JR and moi.

































On Christmas, we celebrate the coming of our King, and His gift of family, through age-old rituals.

One of them is shopping for and preparing a turkey, which takes at least two days. With the economic crisis, we considered scrapping this particular ritual, but I guess we take family traditions seriously. They connect the joyful days of our past to the hopeful nights of our future.

The rituals of our lives shape the journey of a family in its quest for lasting relationships. They make us feel we belong to a God-given inner circle where we learn to love unconditionally, overlooking and forgiving imperfections.

"Rituals," according to Robert Fulghum, “are repeated patterns of meaningful acts.”

There is something meaningful about putting together a special Christmas eve dinner, begun with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for grace given to every member of the family, present around the table or somewhere miles away.

There is something warm about gathering beside a fully lit tree, opening gifts symbolic of the greatest Gift ever received by man. There is something spectacular about snapping happy moments of grace.

The rituals of our lives today are topics for reflection of God's love tomorrow.
































What better time to have the best of them than on Christmas eve?

The turkey this year is only 6.7 kilos—but good for four servings. Dinner, breakfast (sandwich), lunch (tortilla filling), afternoon snack (salad), and dinner on Christmas day (paksiw or vinegared stew).

JR was our cooking chef and JC, our eating chef. Tony and I alternated as photographers.











In His infinite goodness, God blessed us with a family with whom we could celebrate His coming to earth with the rituals of our lives.


(P.S. My tree this year matches my blog site. Yellow ribbons and sunflowers. If Jesus were born in this country today, I would tie yellow ribbons everywhere and strew his manger with sunflowers to welcome Him!)