By Minda E. Madrinan, NJ

This was the party that was in trouble from the very beginning. Strangely enough, it seemed that the group was kind of slow this time in arriving at a decision where to hold the party. The conflicting considerations were distance and economics. One place was distant but inconvenient to reach; the other, a beautiful place but expensive. The latter was canceled, then rescheduled and then canceled again due to some external cause.

Some over-eager officer from some organization (not ours) approached the management of the Club House in person which lead to the discovery that our friend making the reservation was just a "frontman."

Consequently, the party was canceled at the original venue due to some foul-up in scheduling. Furthermore, the hospitalization and eventual demise of a fellow member almost derailed the party. The feeling of the group was that it was improper to be reveling while a fellow member was suffering in a hospital.

However, the final decision was that "the show must go on." Our gratitude goes to the Pascual family who came to the rescue when they offered to host the party.

A party without music is un-imaginable, let alone a Christmas party. So, we had some music. It proved to be the most enjoyable part of the party. We sang Christmas carols. Taking turns at the keyboard were Bart Matela and Minda Madrinan.

The attendance was slightly lighter compared to previous years. But the festive mood was not diminished the least. Present were the whole Philadelphia contingent despite the death of Laura Villarin. The Kagahastian and Ongkingco families were also represented for the first time. We only regretted that Nena couldn’t make it --- she recently passed away.

Our surprise guest was Candida Cainto Agbaglud who was eager to meet with kababayan. She is mainly housebound due to health condition. This afforded her a reunion with former classmate, Loli Kagahastian. They haven’t seen each other in ages.

The food was, needless to say, potluck, not to over-burden the generous hosts. Each one brought something, and like previous years, the food was enough to feed an army.