2020 hasn't been easy for most people especially for people like me who is a theatre actress. But this post isn't meant to complain about how this year has ruined all of my plans in life. This is a post of appreciation.
Being Filipino, I'm used to spending the holidays at home with my family. There was only one time before that this didn't happen. It was because I was in a contract with Miss Saigon and had to celebrate it in Zurich, Switzerland. That was different though. I was working and I didn't have a choice.
This year, I had the choice to spend it with my family but chose not to because the number of cases in the UK are just insanely high! It was sad but I got to spend it this year with my "Vienna family". It was safe as we are all living in the same building.
(left to right) Winchester Lopez, Sian Yeo, Cletus Chan, Ross Saunders, Ayn Ferrer
So this was our first "family" photo. Haha! The Asians and Ross, the honorary Asian.
It was lovely because I didn't feel homesick at all. We did our best to celebrate Christmas with so much positivity. We ate so much food on Christmas Eve (Filipinos celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Originally, we would wait for midnight and then we could eat. But obviously we didn't have much to do but eat and play games so we ate early).We then waited for midnight to open our Secret Santa gifts.
Filipino Style
We had Roast for Christmas dinner the next day. Ross cooked almost everything even though he's Vegetarian. Oops! But Cletus roasted the chicken.
Christmas Roast Dinner 2020
Fast forward to a few days later on New Year's Eve.
So, I told everyone that we should eat round food for New Year's Eve. Sian suggested that maybe we should eat Korean rice cakes(Teokbokki?). And then she had more ideas for food so we decided that maybe she should cook. Some brought wine and cakes. In the end, this was our buffet:
AMAZING, am I right? and that doesn't include our desserts!
We're lucky enough to end the year with full bellies. Very lucky.
Hence, the smiles in these photos.
We didn't get to see the fireworks outside but we watched the Austrian countdown, watched the ballet after that and then waited for the UK countdown.
We laughed and ate. It felt like HOME. :)