The Beauty of Home-Cooked Meals and Being Together For Christmas

I LOVE home-cooked meals! It's a staple in our family get-togethers. Home-cooked meals are more delicious than food in restaurants - we can put in more flavors, more meat, more vegetables. It's practically unlimited everything. It's just sad I keep updating you guys on commercial food. I swear my family can make the BEST home-cooked meals, thanks to my Lola who made sure she passed down the recipe to the kids.

May it be a small family gathering, to a special occasion like our house blessing last month, home-cooked meals are the stars of the show. Same thing during my Uncle's birthday last Dec. 23, we had home-cooked meals, a reunion, and our traditional Christmas exchange gift.

My Aunt had prepared a special buffet-style meal for everyone.

First, we have the shrimp dish.

I wasn't able to eat this because I concentrated on another seafood dish. But Mom said it was really good!

This I had: CRABS!!

It was fatty, in Filipino we call it ALIGUE. Super yummy fatty goodness, great when eating it with your bare hands! :)

This came from us, and this has been one of my Lola's specialty dish: PAELLA

It had tahong (mussels), prawns, boiled eggs, chorizo, and rice that was colored red. Everybody loved this! And it made us miss our grandmother!

Also a Filipino staple in every celebration is the PANCIT.

This was a special type of pancit because it mixed the noodles of pancit bihon (the thin ones) and pancit canton (fat ones). Funny, because this was a take-out from AMBER, a restaurant known for really good barbecues and different types of pancit.

Another take-out, this time from Jollibee and one for the kids present, is FRIED CHICKEN a.k.a CHICKEN JOY!

I may not be a kid, but I had this! Great with GRAVY! YUMMY!!

It was set in a long table where any can just get freely.


And of course, all birthdays have the cake-blowing ceremony. This is my Uncle, surrounded by his grandkids.


This was a special day for us in the family, not only because it was my Uncle's birthday, but also because we finally met the latest addition to our ever growing brood. Please welcome, Tristan Jay Vasquez Dumana.

This was his first Christmas, and we were glad he was able to spend it with us! For New Year, he goes back to Cebu with his Mommy.


You may have met the bunch at my birthday/Halloween blog. And since Christmas is really something for the kids, here they are minus the blood (hehehe!)


This has become a family tradition. We gather around my Aunt's living room where the Christmas tree is and wait for our names to be called out. One of my cousins get to be the one to call out everybody.


It gets to be happier and rowdier every year with the number of kids increasing. But it's so cute to see them grab the gifts so they could be the ones to give it to the respective owner.

From us, the DUMANA FAMILY we wish you guys a Merry Christmas! For our relatives abroad, we miss you guys! We really hope that one day, we get to have Christmas altogether! The family's getting bigger by the second, and we really wish you could come see us! We love and miss you all!! :)