Christmas 2021. I have a thing for Christmas. As a (Filipino) pastor’s kid, I grew up in an environment where Christmas is celebrated in a huge way. Christmas hymns blasted from our car stereo as soon as the “ber” months…
Behind the Scenes of a Christmas Photograph
Christmas 2020. Behind the one family photo that makes the proverbial Christmas postcard are a dozen outtakes and stories. This was us last year, Christmas 2020, at the height of the pandemic. We had been under lockdown for almost a…
Counting the Days, and Making the Days Count
It’s the first day of November and day 231 of this lockdown. Most of you probably stopped counting the days but, as someone who can count on one hand all the times she left the house in the past 8…
Wrapping up the Past Decade in a Bow
A tad too late to the decade-ender party but as always taking my time to process it all—the decade that has passed, the new one that has just begun. I started writing this post in December, only to write up…
How I Want to Remember this Christmas
Christmas 2019. “Best Christmas ever!”, says my daughter mid-jump, eyes twinkling bright like the northern star. I may have said something like “woohoo!” but deep inside I tried to recall past Christmasses and, taking my daughter’s declaration too seriously, secretly…
The Christmas Animated Movie You Won’t Mind Watching All Year-Round
Heads up: It’s on Netflix. It’s always been on Netflix, somewhere, underneath piles of shows trying to capture your attention this Christmas season. I highly recommend you look up The Star. The Star Animated Film, 2017 In case you don’t…
