Tis’ the season of smiles!

Love. Laughter. Time with loved ones. Christmas!

I spent a wonderful Christmas celebrating with my cousins today.

Christmas was a day of exchanging gifts (Secret Santa, White Elephant), watching movies and eating Hello Kitty foodie-licious eats!

For the main courses, traditional Filipino fare was not lacking. There was sisig (sizzling sour pork), pinakbet (mixed vegetables steamed in shrimp paste) and chicken afritada (chicken in tomato sauce)

There was also Christmas favorites like lasagna, seafood paella, beef with mushrooms and shrimp.

We also had a beautiful spiral honey ham.

For dessert, there were various Filipino desserts like puto, kutsinta and pichi pichi (rice cakes), buko pandan (coconut dessert with gelatin and lychee) ginataang totong (sweet rice with mung beans) and torta (sweet Filipino bread)

My cousin made this delicious red velvet cake.

Though the food was delcious, I think the best part of Christmas was the time spent with family and friends! It was a day to just be thankful for all our blessings and having each other. It was a day of love and laughter. A day where there was definitely reason to smile :).

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends too! Merry Christmas! ❤️