(Last year I started a special Christmas blog series entitled 25 Days of Christmas. For this year I wanted to do it again. If the Christmas song has 12 days of Christmas, I have my longer version – 25 Days of  Christmas Year 2.)

On the 21^st day of Christmas, I attended three events on a single night.

Before the term ended, one of my students invited me to her upcoming birthday celebration- dinner together with her friends/classmates. Since I don’t have any event booked during that time, I agreed to join.

Last night, I received a text from Nowie, my batchmate in audit. He invited me for the Christmas / Year-end dinner with the rest of our batchmates. I said my half-hearted yes since I knew  I already agreed to my student’s invitation. But this is a gathering of batchmates in audit and I didn’t want the dinner. After most of my batchmates parted ways out of audit firm where we all met, it becomes harder to organize a dinner for the group. Schedules and work on our respective current jobs hinder us to come up with a schedule compatible to all our schedules.

When I arrived in the office, I received a text message from a close friend back in college and review days in Baguio. She was inviting for (ho and behold) dinner! It’s another dinner to attend to! She just called a break from her audit work and currently enjoying her vacation. And I haven’t seen her for months. I said yes once again but deep inside I knew that baka malate or hindi ako makaattend. It’s like I am the leading actor in the Yes Man movie. Yes lang ako ng yes.

So how did I manage to attend all three events? It was so simple. I took one dinner at a time (hahaha!). Parang Accounting lang FIFO method (First In First Out), I attended first the invitation that came earliest.

Dinner 1:

So I dropped by the North Park in Ayala for Arianne’s birthday dinner. I arrived just in time the food was about to be served (amazing!). To add life to the dinner (sa tagalog, para magkabuhay ang kainan, lolz), I started a game which we played yesterday in Christmas Party of our department- Question Game (may hangober pa ako sa larong yun eh). Sobrang saya ng palitan ng questions. It was like a déjà vu  but with different set of players I was playing with.

After mapagod sa kakatanong, we played next the BOBO Game. It’s a game of naming things based on a certain category. Whoever who can’t name will be pressured and be called BOBO. Nakakapressure din mag-isip, especially if limited lang alam mo on a certain category. Hirap matawag ng bobo (lolz!).

Then after the bobo game, we played our last game, Killers! It’s actually a game played using cards. Sa larong eto kawawa ang di marunong kumindat. Kindatan kasi ang laro. The killer will make kindat to the other players. Tapos may pulis na huhuli sa killer. Tapos may nurse/doctor who will breathe new life into the dead player. There’s also a spy who will kill the police. Meron ding Judge who will give the consequence of the game and then the rest of remaining players are Taong Bayan or witness.  Since we didn’t have cards, “nagdrulats” na lang kami ng aming roles. Naging masaya naman ang laro. Hirap lang manghuli ng killer!

In all those games the consequence for the loser is – uminom ng hot tea!

Dinner 2:

While enjoying the dinner and games with my students, I kept on checking my phone for the venue and updates on my second dinner to attend to. Good thing sobrang dami ng tao sa Kanin Club in Ayala Triangle so my batchmates transferred to Sentro in Greenbelt 3. It gave me the leverage to spend more time with my students. When I received the text message that my batchmates were already in Greenbelt, I prepared myself and bade good bye to the game este birthday dinner.

When I arrived in Greenbelt, naabutan kong nghihintay ng food ang mga batchmates ko. Meron pang time magkwentuhan. Nowie gave his gifts to all of us. Salamat sa regalo pareng Nowie. Sunod na Pasko na lang ako babawi. Then other batchmates arrived. Then kainan na ulit. I ate less kasi medyo busog na ako sa food at tawanan from the first dinner.

The dinner paved the way to make kumustahan and updates to all our plans next year. Some will still stay in the firm, while others set their sights going abroad. For me, I didn’t know.

The dinner was actually not only a Christmas /Year-end Dinner. It was also a birthday celebration for Nowie. He celebrated his birthday on 19^th. Masayang tignan that the tradition of the group is still alive- giving birthday celebrations and despedidas to our fellow batchmates.

Coffee Session:

I could no longer attend to the last dinner. I called Lolit that I would go for coffee session na lang. The coffee session was actually a treat from Quennie our friend who is currently in Malta. Sa akin kasi pinadala ang “coffee fund” so I really need to be there and give/buy them cups and fraps of coffee.

My friends in the coffee session are old college friends. We were part of the SICAP, our organization in college. Ako na lang atang naiwang “kuya” since most of my fellow “kuyas” are in abroad. This year our organization doesn’t have a reunion so a simple kwentuhan over the cup of coffee works a Christmas magic na rin.

Thanks Pooh for the coffee!

So that’s the story of the three events! Bow!

DB