The season’s small pleasures

We’re going to the third week of December and like many of you, I’ve piled on the pounds. It’s mostly around the girth — several inches higher would have been great and would have netted me the end result I have been sweating out in the gym for all these years. My PT would have been proud of me.

The corporate Christmas parties are almost daily now, a few even crowding into a day, which means hopping from one to another, the last one always meriting a few rounds of single malts with the guys. There are still quite a few of these corporate Christmas parties in my calendar as we go into the third week, and like most of the parties earlier, the ubiquitous lechon is never absent.

Oh well, t’is the season to be merry, and like most of us Pinoys, I find this season merry.  Tiring yes, and havoc on the blood pressure and blood sugar, but merry all the same.

We have the distinction of celebrating the Christmas season as early as when the “ber” months come. By October, the familiar carols start to waft in the air waves and we hum along as we drive to work, unconsciously reminding us that Christmas is around the corner, and with it all the attendant expenses, excesses and whatever else the holidays mean.

Even as we plan out our own office Christmas party, there are several other small groups where we belong that hold its own Christmas party. There is the sports group, the ones we play with every week.  There is the homeowners’ association where neighbors usually plan out potluck parties and everyone’s family recipes unravel into delicious concoctions.  There is the old boys club — it could be an uninterrupted association of high school friends who have not lost touch despite the decades, or it could be old office mates who stayed in touch and made it a point to come together yearly.

We have been holding big and small reunions with my old ABS CBN colleagues and barring any major conflict in schedules, I always make it a point to attend these. Those years before and after Martial Law were among the rowdiest for us, our salad days when tomorrow didn’t matter, what was important was today. The small groups that we hold more often are usually the more riotous ones though, and friends like Orly Mercado whom I only see in such rare reunions inevitably go home “merry” from too much wine. After pigging out on cholesterol, our wild days of yore will predictably get relived, told and recounted every year.  Regrettably, these small reunions in recent years have thinned out even more in number these last few couple of years and those of us who have outlived them sadly tick off the “fallouts” but look forward to more reunions in the future.

 It could also be a very active school alumni club, a large one where everyone gets balder and fatter every year and success stories are bandied about freely while the unfortunate situations of other classmates are whispered about in hushed tones. You could tell who made it big—they were always at these reunions without fail, or even ended up generously hosting them. Or it could even be as small as your weekly poker or mahjong group.  Any excuse can be used to hold a Christmas party in the Philippines.

 In my case, I have two poker groups, and both, of course hold their own separate Christmas parties. Mind you, these are small poker groups, five or six players at the most, but the Christmas party is mandatory, and if one can’t make it because of conflict of schedules, it just had to be reset to make sure of a full quorum or it’s a no-go. One of these two poker groups held its Christmas party, which we hosted in our unused condo unit, otherwise known the “unofficial poker den” just a couple of days ago, and though the dinner may be austere by other standards, we burped our way out of the dining room sated and satisfied.  You see, for our group of five, we only had one small lechon and a huge bowl of Spanish Cocido that my wife Babes makes every year for the Christmas party — nothing else by way of viand. Even this poker group has thinned out — our friend Judge Cesar Mangrobang is still incapacitated by an illness, but one of the group, Coach Joe Lipa said that he learned that Judge might be home for Christmas.

Judge loved this cocido — he enjoyed the “tuhod ng baka” boiled gently for several hours until the ligaments and tendons are very, very tender, soft enough to break away and mingle freely in the soup; the “biyas ng baka” that is just as tender; the pork “liempo” and chicken that are all part of this dish. The broth is flavorful because Babes does not scrimp on the Spanish chorizo.  And the vegetables that we all know as part of the familiar “nilaga”, the cabbage, pechay, garbanzos and the potatoes are served alongside the huge bowl of this soupy dish.  It is actually a complete meal—beef, pork, chicken, the chorizo-flavored broth and plenty of vegetables. The tendons get demolished, and some of the liempo too, but the chicken always ends up untouched. Only the guilty pleasures count during these times.  There is usually no need for another dish, aside of course from the ever-present lechon.  And for this year, we chose to have Cebu lechon from Linda’s Lechon de Cebu, small and just perfect for our small group. The other guys, businessman Eric Roxas and architect/coach Rey Madrid thoroughly enjoyed the crackling skin and picked on the ribs.  For dessert, we had one cake, but since Babes came from Binondo that day, she brought some Polland “hopiang baboy.” You guessed it—the “hopiang baboy” got finished first, relished with after-dinner coffee.

For this intimate group, we even have old-fashioned exchange gifts every year. Eric gave everyone gift packs of his company’s One Cup Sake. Warm sake is just divine on cold nights. Try it. A regular member of the group, Bobby Rosales (former BMW Philippines president), couldn’t make it for the party, so he thoughtfully sent his gifts ahead. Well Bobby, you missed out on the cocido and Cebu lechon this year.

These I consider as my small pleasures.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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