Tuesday night, after dinner, I finally finished decorating the Belen (Nativity Scene) in our garage. This year, there was no fancy stuff bought from the bookstore. I digged into an old box and saw the plastic leaves and stems of our old Christmas tree and voila! I had something to start with. I also saw a bag of discarded icycles and two large pieces of plastic flowers that had been pulled out from some previous Christmas decor. There were old Christmas lights in the box, too, but I didn't have time to test them so for this year, they're relegated to the box, unused. We'll probably throw them anytime anyway. No lights for the Belen this year; tipid muna. Within minutes, I had assembled the 12-piece Belen, plus all its "associate" members -- ceramic angels that were given by I-can't-recall-now-who. Some even had little tags indicating the name, date and place of the event. They were giveaways in weddings, christenings, debuts, what-have-yous. That's okay, they're great in the Belen this year, acting as cutee sentinels. (By the way, disregard the date stamp in the photo. Don't know what happened to the camera's settings.)
We do have other sentinels though. Pooh, in girlie santa costume from my opening presentation last year, and Hetty and Jollibee in party hats.
After missing shopping for stuff to put in the Santa stockings on Tuesday night (because of the Elf Convention coffee sharing), Rech and I agreed we'd hie off to Glorietta at 11am for a rush lunch break-cum-zip shopping. Rech asked Len's permission and Len agreed. The team met earlier to finally establish that we couldn't finish our deadlines for today so we're bringing home work over the holidays (waahhhh!!!). No use pretending to work.
At about 11:15, Rech and I left the office. Just as we were boarding a taxi, the last few words of the broadcaster on the taxi's radio floated into my ears: "Ayan, mga kaibigan, inuulit ko po. Ang Jan. 2 ay isang non-working holiday..." All of a sudden, Rech's voice became miles away and the radio program sounded to me like it was coming from a 5.1-channel home theater system.
I grabbed Rech's arm, "ano yun, wala tayong pasok sa Jan 2?!" Rech apparently heard it too but was as confused. I sent a text to Cecile and Len, my boss, to check the news sites for official announcement. None yet, they said. I was probably just excited about shopping, or anxious I won't be able to finish on time, they said.
Rech and I had a quick lunch in Food Choices, and I ran off to National Bookstore and she to Toy Kingdom after. On our way back to Glorietta, we noticed that many people are now flowing into the mall, driven in by the rain. Cabs were nil. We decided to walk back to Landmark or Greenbelt for a cab. While we were walking, Len called and asked if we could get some wrapping paper for her. We found a cab in GB5 after walking around for some time. We got back to the office around 2pm. Only one hour more and we can leave for vacation.
By that time, the HR office has already released an announcement about Jan 2 being a non-working holiday, after President GMA formally announced it that morning. Trust GMA to make late, impulsive declarations! So in character! Maybe she feared that her enemies would assember in her absence to counter her pro-charter change plans.
Anyway, Madam Gloria, thanks for a working Christmas Eve!
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