Without fail, the best party of the season is the Crew Party at the Marketman household in Manila. Twenty years running, our guest list has grown to some 50+ guests, all of them staff, their family members, staff of close friends or relatives, who all get together for a Christmas party a day or two before Christmas. I won’t bore you with the details, but five hours of games, raffles, food, fun and gifts made for a very Merry Merry this year…
…one more group shot with almost everyone in it. I remember when several of these kids were born, and have put many of them through school, with 3-4 having just graduated with degrees in engineering, computer science, psychology and commerce. We may only have one daughter, but it sure feels like we have a whole barangay around us, and we are most grateful for their service over the years.
Visitors to our home almost always express surprise at the presents under the tree in the run-up to Christmas, but we have to explain it’s really mostly for the crew party. They just roll their eyes internally. :)
And this is the tree after the party. But then again, Santa makes another stop at our home just before Christmas Eve… thank goodness. Our extended family wishes you and yours a fabulous Christmas!!
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Those are bunch of lucky people – – I am happy for them. Bless your heart for being good to all your employees and families.
Have the most blessed Christmas and New Year ever as we do! Cheers!
Finally found an explanation why commercial fruitcake is so universally execrated. It originated in England and came under the same spirit as E.M. Forster’ breakfast:
“Porridge or prunes, sir?” That cry still rings in my memory. It is an epitome – not, indeed, of English food, but of the forces that drag it into the dirt. It voices the true spirit of gastronomic joylessness. Porridge fills the Englishman up, prunes clear him out, so their functions are opposed. But their spirit is the same: they eschew pleasure and consider delicacy immoral … Everything was grey. The porridge was in grey lumps, the prunes swam in grey sauce … Then I had a haddock. It was covered in a sort of hard, yellow oilskin, as if it had been in a lifeboat, and its inside gushed salt water when pricked. Sausages and bacon followed this disgusting fish. They, too, had been up all night. Toast like steel: marmalade a scented jelly. I paid the bill dumbly, wondering again why some things have to be. They have to be because this is England, and we are English.
Maligayang Pasko MM at sa iyong buong pamilya!!!!
Merry Christmas, MM and family!
God bless your generous heart!
Belated Merry Christmas everybody!
Best wishes to your family and crew for this festive season and throughout the New Year!
Malipayon nga Paskwa sa imo Marketman, sa imo pamilya, sa imo crew, sa mga taga Zubuchon, kag sa tanan nga naga basa kag parokyano sang Marketmanila halin pa sang una. Malipayon nga Paskwa man sa mga nakilala ko diri sa Marketmanila kag nangin abyan kag na upod sa masadya nga mga kinaon kag linugayawon.