Children's Christmas parties

Well, the Mayan calendar came to its end and we are still here, safe and sound.  No end of the world, despite the dire predictions.

That’s a good thing, as we’ve enjoyed looking back through a memorable 2012.  Here are just a few of the highlights:

We hosted four historical tours for Valor Tours of San Francisco, California.  Among them were six POW veterans; four who were captured on Corregidor, one who was on the Bataan Death March, and another who was captured in Davao, all in 1942. We also hosted three veterans who participated in the retaking of the Philippines in 1944-45.  Given their ages, we don’t expect to ever again see this many returning veterans in any given year.  The tour groups also included many descendants of WW II veterans, a group of students and staff from the College of the Ozarks, and a number of history buffs.

In April, Steve’s book about his father was published.  In May, we were blessed with our seventh grandchild, and Steve turned 60 years old.  We spent July and August in the States, highlighted by lots of time (R&R for us after the four tours) with Steve’s mother in Virginia, Minnesota, the wedding of our only Kwiecinski-side-of-the-family niece in Minneapolis, and much-enjoyed visits with family and friends in Minnesota and Michigan.

The children of the Corregidor employees were treated to three Christmas parties this year.  As we have written in the past, Lynn Lafever has been the island’s Santa Claus for many years.  This year he and his family were unable to travel to the island, but instead sent money to be used to purchase presents.  The gifts were passed out at MacArthur Café last Friday afternoon.

Also, one of the men of the island took it upon himself to organize a party on Christmas Eve.  Derek provided spaghetti and pork kabobs, and invited us to come and partake.  He also had planned a number of games for the children, most of which we had never seen before.  One game was sort of like musical chairs, but instead of chairs pairs of kids had to walk around a piece of newspaper until the music stopped, then jump onto the paper.  What made it especially entertaining was that only one pair of the kids understood what to do, though participants and observers alike had fun.  Another game seemed to be an elimination game like “Simon Says,” but we really couldn’t fully understand what was happening, and the children were so quick that the ‘game-master’ wasn’t able to eliminate players.  A very challenging game involved tilting one’s face up, placing a 1-peso coin on the forehead, and then trying to wiggle the coin from forehead to chin – either over or around the nose – without letting the coin drop to the floor.  No winner, lots of laughter!

Another game involved seeing who could drink a bottle of Cola the most quickly through a straw.  What made it more challenging was that each player had a second straw which hung outside the bottle, meaning that straw mostly pulled air.  Perhaps the most entertaining game included several apples that were suspended by string.  Each pair of kids had to face one another with the apple between them, and eat their apple without using their hands.  Of course as soon they tried to bite the apples they were swinging around, but eventually one pair of boys managed to win the game.  The youngest pair gave up, and we laughed as the little girl partner grabbed the apple and ate it while the rest of the kids continued the competition.  We were sorry that we had not brought our camera, and thus we cannot show you photos of these games.

Because of Derek’s party on Christmas Eve we decided to hold our party the night of the 23^rd.  Like last year, we made up bags of candies and pesos to give to the children.  Ron had a “Christmas Tree” at his house this year, not our traditional pine but a small potted balete tree strung with lights.  We had told the kids to come at 5:30 so that we could eat a quick meal first, but there must have been a lot of anticipation because most were there by 4:45 and all by 5:00.  That was okay with us – we were glad that they were so eagerly looking forward to the party.

We had some dance contests and other activities, and then we passed out the bags of candy.  As we have said before, it’s amazing how many great smiles you can get here for so relatively little money compared to in the States.  It was a bit chilly that evening, and if you look closely you will see that Steve is dressed “Minnesota style,” meaning that he had on long sleeves (often hooded sweatshirts back home) and shorts.

We have included a number of photos from the party and hope that you enjoy them.

On Christmas day we had our traditional spit-turned roasted chicken at Ron’s house.  We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas celebrations as much as we did.

Then earlier this week we spent some time hiking around Corregidor with an American family, Vaughan and Aleda, and their youngest daughter Sonya, who have lived in Metro-Manila for about 18 years.  They were particularly interested in hiking all the way along the “Tail,” something we had not done for a couple of years.  We took our helper Gilbert along to clear the trails, which was a good thing, since the old trail had ceased to exist.  We are sure that we varied from the old trail from time to time, simply trying to find any route through the jungle.

At one point, Gilbert suddenly stopped, crouched down, and signaled for us to also stop and quietly move back along the trail.  He had worked his way under a large swarm of honey bees before he heard them, and he was afraid they might feel threatened and attack.  (The swarm was close to two feet high and almost that wide.)  Gilbert slowly worked his way back; the bees remaining calm and focused on their own business.  We were able to get a picture.  We then bypassed that area and continued hiking toward the tip of the Tail.

Wishing each of you a very Happy New Year!

Steve and Marcia on the Rock