My December so far

It’s just nine days till Christmas and my body is already on “Holiday mode”. This is the time when I wish I could just spend the days leading to Christmas lounging around and just taking it easy, but I already had a week-long leave earlier in the month.

I was out of office for a total of 10 days (that’s with the leaves and the weekend) from December 2-12— the longest I’ve ever been this year. I don’t actually have any plans for those days, just wanting to escape the added stress of work even for the meantime. As I’ve been saying, this year, especially the latter part of it, was brutal because of my mommy’s several health scares.

I don’t have that many get-togethers to talk about either. On the eve of my birthday, my team had our little meet-up at a restaurant in Ayala Malls Circuit, coinciding the company’s Holiday Party that is also happening on the event grounds. 

I enjoyed our team get-together more than the company party. It’s so nice seeing everyone outside MS Teams and just having a nice chat over pizza, salad and pasta. And boy, did we have a lot of it!

We had our exchange gift after a very filling lunch

PRST - Projects Morning girls. It’s so nice not to talk shop for once.

Birthday song and cheers from the whole team for me.

A gratuitous groufie with the team because we’d probably not see each other in months after this

After our lunch we all went to Globe Circuit Event Grounds where the Holiday party is being held. It was just a short walk from the mall but a bit difficult for me because I was carrying a big bag of gifts and was wearing a girly pair of sandals on a grassy lot.

We had to register to get inside and I was handed out this ticket and a candy cane.

Actually I just went there to register so I could be included in the raffle but really had no plans to stay. Not when there’s too many people and not enough tables and chairs for everyone. We also have to visit each stalls to get food and snacks but I wasn’t hungry at that point. 

I looked for kuya and his friend Albert and we all left together within 15-20 minutes of me being there. Call me KJ but I’m just not that comfortable around large crowds anymore. Crowd anxiety, y’all!

Too crowded

The next day was my 46^th  birthday, just went out for some Starbucks brunch while waiting for the 12nn mass at Greenbelt Chapel. It was particularly quiet—just me replying to birthday messages. I went home after the mass and spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping. 

On the 7th, with nothing to do feeling bored at home, I went to see “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” after a month of its release. That only goes to show that after “Avengers Endgame”, I’m not that big on MCU anymore. The movies that were released after 2019 didn’t give me the same thrill of the movies of Phases One to Three. No wonder, the movies and series released after were all belly flops—at least in comparison to the earlier MCU films. But I’ll save this discussion for another post.

On the 9th, Friday, I had a buffet lunch with the family and a friend and then went straight to check-in at Holiday Inn & Suites for a two-night stay because that’s how the kids wanted to celebrate my birthday. Yes, pala-desisyon sila.

I get asked many times why, when I’m always at the mall every weekend, I still choose Holiday Inn & Suites - Glorietta for my staycation. For that, ask my nephews because they will choose it over the bigger rooms of Holiday Inn - Manila Galleria or other hotels for that matter. I guess we feel right at home there. If we want to get something, we can simply go out to the mall that we’re all familiar with. The kids knew Glorietta like the back of their hands. It’s also easier for mommy to go home (she insists on going home and not stay for the night) or get things we forgot at home that we needed for our stay. 

Room 620 for this stay

My bros goofing around

Not blowing 46 candles inside the room as it might trigger the sprinklers. LOL.

Cousin Chi was there and brought me a cake.

We checked-in at 2PM of Friday and checked-out by 1PM of Sunday. It was short but it was okay. At least I got to spend some birthday downtime. For a moment we have escaped the infernal December heat (which is weird because the weather should be nippy by now). Sure I’m still baby-sitting my two nephews most of the time but I had much-needed rest and relaxation still. I’m not gonna complain.