Gone are the long distance phone calls during holidays. Gone are the phone cards that seem to not work especially during Christmas and New Year (or probably because phone lines are quite dysfunctional during holidays due to so many people calling overseas). Gone are the “I-miss-you” and “Wish-you-were-here” dialogues we say to each other, hoping to ease the sadness we feel. All gone, thank God…because we celebrated Christmas together! 🙂

The month of December will always be special to us because it was the month we became a couple in 2002…and it was the month we got engaged in 2004. We have so many fond memories during this time of the year.

This year, we celebrated Christmas as a married couple (physically together), here in Sydney, in our first “munting tahanan”. Triple wow! 🙂

So how did we celebrate Christmas this year?

We celebrated early. The husband’s gift arrived on Monday morning. Since I gave Pink away, he got me a 8gb iPod Touch. I thought he won’t be buying me a new MP3 player because he lent me his Creative Zen already…but it was all camouflage.

He could’ve bought the gift in store but he wanted my gift engraved and the only way to have it done is to buy online.

His gift came with a clear case and screen protector–these ones he bought from the Apple Store, so I also got a bag which I can use as a lunchbag hehe.

And because I’m clumsy, the Husband had to put everything together for me.

Since he gave his gift early, I gave mine early too.

Monday night palang puyat na kami…sa kaka-set-up at kakalaro ng mga bago naming toys hehehe.

On Christmas Eve, I took a half-day off and had lunch with the Husband (he left work at 2pm). Before he went back to the office, we went shopping for clothes at French Connection (they were on 50-70% off). I went home after buying a pair of shoes at Novo, so I can get noche buena ready. I just prepared lasagna and fruit salad. I bought ham and chocolates to complete the menu. We had dinner at my kapamilya’s place to celebrate our Tita Bess’ birthday. At 11 o’clock, we were back home talking to our parents in the Philippines. My mother-in-law and brother-in-law spent Christmas at my parents’ home. Chris and I are very lucky to have parents who became friends, a dream come true for us since from the start we wanted our families to be one. At 12 midnight, we ate Noche Buena and opened gifts. We love all the gifts we received, mostly for the home, so everything will definitely be used.

We woke up early on Christmas morning to attend mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. The Cathedral is the most photographed church in Sydney because it’s really beautful.

After mass, we walked to Darling Harbour and had lunch of Fish ‘n Chips while watching seagulls fly infront of us.

This was a dream come true. 🙂 I’ve waited so long to do something like this with the Husband–just having a lazy day, hanging out by the harbour, eating fish ‘n chips–very Aussie, very laidback. We took our time eating lunch and talked and talked and talked. I love it!!! Christmas spent with the Husband was the best present I have ever received. 🙂

And if that wasn’t enough, we ended our day having coffee at Starbucks. Just perfect.