Christmas 2016

Published On 12/26/2016 By Kriska Marie

I spent my first Christmas away from home all alone. Last year, I got to spend Christmas with my family. And this year, I spent it again away from home, not all alone now but with ~~my friends~~ my second family.

Yearly Christmas family photo, not with me though, but with our little Uno! :D

I wasn't really planning for anything this Christmas. I was only expecting a Christmas dinner with Mark. But my Christmas turned out to be more than I expected. It's my first time to invite friends over for Christmas and I'm glad that I did. It's also my first time to celebrate Christmas with Mark since I came to Dubai, so this Christmas was really memorable as I had a lot of firsts!

It has been my family's practice to start the Christmas feast early, from dinner to midnight, so when my friends arrived at around 10pm, I already insisted that we start to eat. Sorry, friends, I knew I broke your Noche Buena traditions, but thank you, for bearing with me. :D

Mark and I with Lester, Kathleen, Leean, Leeda, and Jan Mae
Photo grabbed from @janmae04

Our hearty feast consisted of Lechon and Filipino-style Spaghetti which I prepared, special Kare-kare by Leean, and Christmas Ham, Leche Flan and Maja Blanca, plus some chocolate cake by Kathleen. We all ate to our hearts' and tummies' desires, over some funny stories and antics.

I get by with a little help from my friends! :D
Photos grabbed from @janmae04

We opened our gifts come midnight and then indulged into videoke, rounds of drinks, travel stories, and endless laughter till early morning!

Although it's true that nothing beats spending Christmas with the family, I got to spend it with this crazy bunch, and that's kind of the same thing!

Thank you, everyone, for a super fun Christmas! Let's do this again, shall we? :D

Merry Christmas!🎄🎂🎉 • 2nd year of spending this season away from my family and I don't think I'll ever get used to it. But I still got to spend it with a crazy bunch so it's all good! And oh, my #Christmas #wishlist was granted, so yay! 🎄🙏🏼😍 • #ChristmasInDubai #MerryChristmas #Christmas2016

A photo posted by Kriska Marie | Sweet Nothings (@kriskamarie) on Dec 25, 2016 at 4:43am PST