It was pass 7 am when earth quake woke me up. My daughter and husband is in the living room watching Sesame street when I rushed towards them and quickly dress up so we can go down.
We always go down after earthquake to be safe in aftershock.
The sun was shining, got the opportunity to bask in it with my daughter.
Flashback last night during the noche buena, it felt surreal having no family around just the two of us Jose and I eating alone, together. It was unusual to not have exchange gifts, variety of food and noisy family around. But that's our reality now, as we face the most difficult times ( the Covid time). We'd love to cook for family especially Jose, this time it's just us. We shared a two course meal - Seafood Marinara and Lechon (oven baked). We ate before even noche buena cause we are starving we havent had our lunch in 24th of the afternoon. He was busy sending parcels and buying groceries while I was the one who took care of Eloise.
Baby and I bathe together, I fed her, we watch her favorite Sesame Street for a couple of minutes and we had short session of reading books and then finally I put her to sleep. Normally she sleeps around 8PM but now she can doze off of as early as 5PM. But even my daughter slept early on the 24th, I still waited for like hours before the meal is served. Famish, I savor the flavorful lechon and had 2 full rounds of Marinara haha!
Before that, we tried to bake ginger bread man. Man was I not ready , I made the design ridiculous - well just because there's no tool like icing to finish it off. But anyway I still "plan" to give it to family haha.
We'll in bisperas the pasko, hubby and I got cozy andmostly we spend the night together unbothered by the baby who's ofcourse ready to burst anytime. He mustered his strength to massage my legs but actually he still has to finish it of as in now (he's still PS4-ing).
So in the morning of the 25th, earthquake happened. Same routine, we went down to ease off aftershock then for a couple of mins we went back up again. So we had breakfast with the little one, she ate cerelac rice and soy mixed with Gerber Squash. Sorry anak, we havent had the time to really cook for fresh ulam with soft boild veggies for you, so so guilty anak as of writing this. But anyway, we had our siesta and when we woke up tatay (Jose) needed to go to eastwood to fix his ingrown and to hoard some stuffs for the baby (Chicco Sale). So when tatay left, we went down to the park, we took cuple of photo and videos together. We were there with a mum and like 2 year old boy. So as I stroll my baby, I noticed the surrounding is eerily quiet. I wonder where everyone went. Were they asleep because of last nights noche buena? Are we the only ones in this place, did they had their vacation in their provinces or some place else? I felt alone, though I'm with my daugther. This must be the most silent Christmas afternoon I've ever had. Simple and quite silenced. The place looked deserted and lonely. I thought I heard a Christmas song playing, well it's playing but I cant hear clearly what song it is.
I guess this emotion came from the fact that we are all alone and somewaht sad of what's happned to us in year 2020. I feel threatened in every move. Praying that 2021 will bring us safety and peace of mind.
Happy Holidays..
Benicarlo Family