lastrplord:

a massively extended version of ruthlesscalculus’ post. Before reporting broken links, please check the updated version which is always located here. 

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Started a new annual tradition with my special group of friends from high school this 2012!! It’s an annual year-end private party that we promised to do every December to celebrate Christmas together + to end the year with a tad bit of booze, food, gifts and craziness. 

As per usual, we’ve patronized this same beach for years now. We should come up with more exciting places for next year though, I kinda think the beach has been over-used. I mean, we’re here almost every break. Whenever we decide to have a party as a group, we celebrate it here. Nevertheless, it was a crazy day - everything is crazy with these guys, imo no matter what we do.

Met up with the rest of the gang at Cliff’s mansion. We ate lunch here too since the day started a bit late for all of us. Was supposed to have left together at 9AM but was an hour and a half behind of schedule. (Of which they blame me, orz. Idk with these guys they bully me too much. ^^)

Not much to say just ‘cept that we played a lot of games. Ian’s been adamant about being the organizer of this event and she demanded that we all participate. Our team ended up winning 2 out of the 5 games. There were prizes of course. Apologies in advance for all the vulgarities in our activities.

(L-R) Tricia, Cherlz, Yanster and Audrey

(L-R) GM, Audrey, Kiara and Ian

Best gal pals in the whole wide world: Bem, Audrey, Ian and Cherlz

Traditional group photo-op. Most of us are the usual criminals. [Bottom photo; L-R] Cliff, Kiara, Anjo, Audrey, myself, Reinna, Cherlz, Ian, Tricia, Bemm, Dads, Rae, Dwight, Prince and GM. 

I just love sunset shots so much! Every place, every time it’s different. Part 2 will be up soon. Mostly covers our sleepover, which was waaay more adult-ish than this. :)

This might be a bit late (too late, even) but I’d just like to update nonetheless.

For Christmas vacation this year the entire family went on a very nice and simple vacation to my Mom’s hometown in Antique. What’s so special about this trip is that we were all complete - Dad, Mom and my two sisters. The last time we had a decent-length vacation together was around 2007, I think. And here we are… had to wait 5 years. :) Although there were vacations in between, of course but those always had one or two less people so it wasn’t as much fun.

Our first stop was Bacolod. Dad, my older sister Jessie and I flew to  Bacolod on the 21st, Mom and my baby sister, Kathy were supposed to go with us but due to an unforeseen changes in schedules - they had to take a different flight the next day. We took the last flight at around 5:45 PM so when we landed it was already dark and wow, traffic in Bacolod is such a pain. Anyway, seeing as it was already late there was really no time to go around the place, which was sad since Bacolod looked really nice during the Christmas season. We checked into our hotel and turned in early for the night for another long journey the following day.

Left Bacolod and then met up with Mom and Kathy in Ilo-ilo. After Ilo-ilo was Boracay (Boracay should be a separate post cause it was so nice ^^) and then Valderama, Antique last stop was Sibalum, Antique. Here’s a pic spam of the entire trip. 

Random silly-ness with my sister during the first wave of our trip. Courtesy of her Instagram. :>

We’ve been to Ilo-ilo a couple of times already so we were just there for an overnight pit stop. (L-R) My baby sister, Kathy and our cousin, Iris. 

On the 23rd, we went to Boracay. This was taken at our hotel, which was a step away from the beach front - all worth the price, I say.

Boracay was beautiful. Despite it being a bit crowded, because of the peak-season - holidays and winter season in East Asia and all, it was still pretty. 

This was in Valderama, Antique, Mom’s hometown. We’ve been here before but Mom was really psyched about being home after so long. She kept spouting out her native language - which was a little funny at first because she kept mixing it up with Cebuano, which is our native language in Iligan.

Antique is mostly a provincial area - so this place is far from the urban chaos. It’s all green grass and mountains and trees and farm animals. If you feel like escaping from urbanity, Antique is one of the few places left in the Philippines where the city-life has not completely conquered yet. 

Guys, this is my Dad. Sometimes I think he isn’t at all his age. He acts so silly when he’s in front of the camera. Both he and Mom grew up in different provincial areas where farms are the main source of livelihood. I guess this was both a vacation and a reprieve for the both of them from the hustle and bustle of the city. My sisters and I grew up in the city so this was also equally as nice for us. The weather was actually cool and warm at the same time. The breeze actually felt and smelled real, imo.

On the 27th, we packed up our bags and moved to another municipality of Antique- Sibalum. This is me and my baby sister fooling around and singing along to One Direction’s songs during the car ride en route. 

Surprise, surprise because it’s the beach again! The beach at sunset was really pretty and this was actually taken before a tropical depression hit our area. Looks pretty calm but the waves were actually ferocious and we were barely able to enjoy it for a few minutes before my Dad deemed it too dangerous to stay in the water for much longer.

The camera actually captured the pink/orange/yellow hues of the sky. It was absolutely stunning. 

The following day, the storm was brewing hot and cold and we had no choice but to stay indoors. Luckily our kid cousins were there so we weren’t completely bored. We spent majority of the time on watching movies and playing games. The night before our flight back home we attended one of our cousin’s pageant night - she was so pretty. She won 1st runner-up but she would’ve totally bagged the crown, imo. :>

On the 28th, we left Antique at 5 in the morning for our 10AM flight from Ilo-ilo bound for Cagayan de Oro. It was sad to leave because I had so much fun but I was also a bit relieved that finally after a week, we were all going home to our own home and my comfy bed. Vacations are always fun and worthwhile but home will always be the best place to come back to. :) Watch out 2013, because we have plans for you as well. 

The thing about vacations is that when you have them - you initially think of the scenery, tourist spots, food and whatnot but this vacation was not about those things at all. It was basically about FAMILY - you know relatives, extended relatives, people you see once-in-a-blue-moon because you live so far from each other and when you do get to see them again they’ve changed so much you don’t even recognize them anymore. Yeah, so my encounter with most of the people there was mostly like that full of introductions and shizz and “do you remember”s and “wait, what was your name again…?”s and “oh, you’ve grown up so big already”s.

Jessie, my older sister and I are mostly awkward people around extended family - mostly because of aunts and uncles that have witnessed you growing up in your underwear and all your awkward childhood era (mind you, why can’t they simply get over it right? I mean I don’t see the need for them to bring it up in normal conversation - why can’t we just stick to the fun parts and not the awkward stuff, really ^^) and the cousins.. the cousins our age are NUMEROUS as in like you can’t count them or memorize them all in one day and sometimes you think wow, our family’s really been going at it right since there were so many. OTL Just kidding though. This year, we decided to make a change since this was special and we’re practically old enough to enter decent conversation with anybody so yeah WE DID.

Guess what…? We ended up as baby sitters for all our younger cousins. Those ages 5 to 15, maybe. All the others were either aloof or just casually looking too-busy-to-talk-but-I’ll-smile-and-say-hi-if-you-notice-me, which is probably the reason why most of our photos are taken with kids and not the adults or teenagers.

Instead of blabbering about this entire account to you… might I show you instead…? :)

Here are our cousins from Ilo-ilo. These kids are quite comfortable with us from the get-go since they mostly grew up in Iligan - they recently moved a few years back. Please note that the girl in the red dress is only 11 years old (yepp, younger than my baby sister) and she’s ALMOST as tall as me. Insecurities about my height triggered by kids, how pathetic.

My sisters and I with cousins from Antique (this is only like 1/4 of them there are more…) The girls flanking me are almost my age - they’re all in high school the eldest graduating. The others are still in elementary.

Just as I said, talk about EXTENDED. ^^

Majority of our stay in Antique was spent in a beach resort. We rented a cottage for a few days and as most of the kids wanted to stay with us how could we say NO? Despite the lack of space, it was fun. 

Family and I played the game ‘Pinoy Henyo’ with them - which was mostly my Mom handing out money because she practically kept giving the kids the answers in the background. Mom was hilarious tbqh, she wasn’t allowed to talk so she kept miming and doing all these silly things so that the kids could guess it right - and they did, every single one of them and they had money and they drained Mom’s wallet. She didn’t mind at all but we did have to drop by the bank the next day because she only had a hundred pesos or so left.

All-in-all, time spent with family - extended or not, is time well-spent. I might not be able to see them again in quite some time but they were all so nice and accommodating, which makes me want to come back for more. In the end, one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. ^^