The Adventures of Salgado Family: Christmas Eve and Noche Buena

We spent Christmas eve with my college buddy and his family in Corona, CA.

My friend's name is Robert but I call him Babski. His wife is Wen and their son is Mikee. Babski and I go way back to college days and we have kept in touch with each other and with our other college classmates. We are from B.S. Math 4C class and we have a yahoo group which allows us to stay in touch with each other and get to know what's going on in each other's life.

I have known Wen for a long time too because she and Babski were dating during our college days. They are two of our closest friends and when we meet up, no matter how long we haven't seen each other, we pick up where we left off and it always seem like we never left each other's side. And that's what I like about my friendship with my college buddies. Until now, it's still there and still strong despite the fact that we are practically scattered all over the world now. Internet really makes the world smaller!!!

So by now, you must be dying to know what is Noche Buena, right? Ok, ok....Here's a little bit of tradition tidbits. Philippines is predominantly Catholic. The Catholic churches perform services for 9 days leading up to Christmas eve. it starts on December 15 and the last one in the series is performed on Christmas eve. In the not so distant past, these services are conducted at 4am or 5am and these services are called Simbang Gabi. Lately a lot of churches are performing these services at night instead of early morning although there are still some churches that performs them in the morning. After the last service, families would then gather together at midnight to partake on a feast that has been prepared to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This feast is called Noche Buena. There you go....you get to know a bit about how Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines.

Babski and Wen prepared this midnight feast for us and I must say, it brings back a lot of nostalgic memories in my mind. I remember the things that I usually do with my family during this time. We were concerned on how to keep the kids up but surprisingly, they managed to do it because they were enjoying playing games.

I was tired already and didn't have much left because during the day we were in Disneyland doing a lot of walking, standing and walking and standing and walking and standing...you get the picture.

Anyway, Babski and Wen did a wonderful job and the food turned out great. It was worth the wait. But what makes the occasion more memorable is the fact that we were with our closest friends who we consider as family.