A letter to my husband

Dear Alfie

Very soon you'll be boarding a plane and leaving to spend the holidays in Manila. It will be your first Christmas there, and only your second time in the Philippines. Since the extent of your exposure to Filipino culture is limited to occasional trips to Goldilocks and my parents' semi-annual visits, the full-on immersion you're about to experience might leave you exhausted and bewildered. Yes, it's true that

- you'll swelter with heat like you're standing in front of a furnace, even though all the crazy people around you are wearing sweaters and saying it's chilly
- despite the heat, you'll be forced to wear long pajamas at night to protect your legs from mosquitoes
- you'll sit in four-hour traffic jams
- you'll suffer sporadic internet access
- you'll have to get up at 2AM in order to watch your English Premier League football games
- you'll be paraded in front of a sea of relatives and pseudo-relatives at all the lunches, teas and dinners we're invited to
- you'll be asked to try all sorts of native "delicacies", from balut to dinuguan
-you'll get woken up at the crack of dawn to go to Misa Aguinaldo (even though you're not Catholic)

But you're a trooper, and you can handle all that. And on the other hand......

- you'll get homecooked meals every single day
- you'll get to visit a real beach, with coconut trees and shells in the sand and no-one else in sight
- you'll find the most beautiful handicrafts and presents at the Christmas Bazaars
- we'll finally be able to go out as a couple, knowing we're leaving our kids in safe, loving hands
- The Pea will finally get to see a bit of the rainforest that she has been talking about for so long, and we'll get to see the wonder and excitement in her eyes when she does
- You'll puff up with pride when everyone slobbers all over our kids and raves about how cute and smart they are
- We'll spend the holidays with my big, loud, loving family.

It's gonna be great and you're gonna love it!

Bonggamom is panicking over the number of things left to do before she leaves for vacation, and trying to relieve some of her stress by blogging about it over at Finding Bonggamom.