This Christmas, it is better for you to stay away from luxurious parties and ostentatious display of wealth and other expensive gift-giving. If you wish to rediscover the authentic meaning of Christmas, here are the things I have done last year and intend to repeat this Yuletide. You may wish to do any, some or all of these twelve amazing experiences in my bucket list. First, attend your high school reunion, or better still initiate the holding of one. Renew old ties and meet old friends, including your first love, who is most probably happily married like you. Second, get in touch with your very first best friend and have real nice lunch or dinner with him or her.
Third, go home to your province, walk the old lonely pathway you used to tread in your elementary days. Visit your old school, and surprise the teachers with simple gifts. Walk barefoot in the beach and eat with your bare hands and relish the ''kinilaw'' in Moalboal and the tuba in Ronda. Visit the old church in Argao where you were baptized and go visit your uncles and aunts. Fourth, have a weekend visit to your old dad and mom who are in the US, aged and longing to hug you and listen to your ''sintunado'' rendition of USAHAY. Have bonding with your brods and sisters in Seattle and gift them the latest music album of Jose Mari Chan.
Fourth, when you are back, go spend a night in the squatter area in B. Rodriguez, your old neighborhood, and have a videoke session with old friends, members of BIDLISIW, the youth group you founded in the seventies, yeah, good old seventies, when there were no cell phones, no internets, no lap tops but only nice genuine friends who had no hidden agenda. Fifth, take a bus ride alone going round south, from Cebu City to Carcar, Sibonga, Argao, Dalaguete, all the way to Santander, then go back north via Alegria, Badian, Moalboal, then sweet old Ronda, where you eat the most delicious bibingka in the whole planet. Then sleep in Dumanjug and meet your old Cursillo brothers and sisters, dinner of inasal nga'' manok'', and wine, friendship, and songs.
Sixth, bring your wife, five children and one grandson to Langin, tucked in the mountains of Ronda, Dumanjug, and Argao. Visit cousins and have a picnic in the Lusno Falls with sinugbang ulang and inasal with ''puso'' and camote, and utan nga kamunggay. Seventh, have a camping with your family in Balasdiot, Moalboal, swimming, singing, playing parlor games and telling stories of friendship and love. Go dolphin and whale watching in Boljoon, and eat torta from Argao, chicharon from Carcar. And visit the Virgin in Simala. Eighth, send cards to old friends, and ninth visit long forgotten relatives. Make peace with enemies and write letters of forgiveness even to those who do not know that they have wronged you.
Tenth, have a date with your spouse, a dinner with candle light and violin, and champagne, or just plain kalamansi juice, and sinugbang isda. Eleventh, buy a music album and just have a lazy afternoon with your family eating pizza or bodbod or plain puto maya with mango and sikwate. Invite all the maids, security guards and messengers, drivers and gardeners. Ask them to dress formally, in gown and barong, then serve them dinner. Lastly, have a real good confession and communion, if you are a Catholic, and prepare for the NOCHE BUENA filled with joy and hopes. Believe me, no money can ever buy this package of happiness. Try them.