The Road to 40 Day 230/365: Disney and Nostalgia

It’s Christmas day, and we looked forward to some special activities to make it feel more festive.

Originally, I was hoping that my cousins could come over to our house for a classic Lozada family gathering. However, it has been a while since we last had a massive and regular gathering like that, so everyone had plans already.

Once we confirmed that there was no event at the house, Che booked tickets to see Disney on Ice in the evening.

We also planned to have lunch somewhere with my family. We were looking for something nice, but we’re not really sure what’s open and what they would like.

When we were in Estancia the other day, I saw a branch of Luk Yuen, so I suggested maybe we can eat there. It’s not fancy, probably not even the best Chinese restaurant chain out here. But it carried a lot of memories for us.

(Luk Yuen Estancia interior image not mine)

Back then, we would hear mass at San Juan despite us living all the way in Cainta. My dad and his siblings all lived near the church there when they first moved to Manila from Bicol, so I guess it’s what they considered their home parish, no matter where they lived.

Saturday became a time to see my cousins and hear mass. After the mass, we would go to Greenhills Shopping Center to have dinner either at Jollibee (because it had a playground) or Luk Yuen (because it’s their favorite).

It was where I first met beef and wanton noodles, which is a surprisingly rare sight in Singapore – you either had to choose if you wanted beef or wanton. My dad would usually order King Dao noodles, which he would describe a a Chinese spaghetti.

We met up for late lunch there, as it took a while for us to get moving from the other house.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take photos, but we did share a lot of laughs while we were there. Khail was cooperative enough to let us talk and share stories.

We then went to Mall of Asia to get ready for Disney on Ice. I went by straightforward routes, but it was unusually traffic. It took about a couple of hours to reach The Arena.

Che queued up to get our tickets and we went inside so that we could get snacks. It was a good thing too, that we went inside already because the queue was wild. Vino and I went in first as I was already carrying a lot of things.

Che and Kathreen stil haven’t made it to our seats by the time the show started. They missed maybe three minutes, so it really wasn’t much.

Disney on Ice was always just something of a dream for Che to watch. She loves Mickey and Disney in general, and she loves musicals. Even if we were earning for ourselves, we always thought it was an expensive show. Thankfully, we’re blessed to be able to afford it now.

When we first watched it, Vino was still a baby, and he slept through most of it. We went to watch it again when he was a bit older, and he enjoyed it a lot. We watched it once here in the Philippines with his cousins. This time, we were with Kathreen.

For every show, they had a different theme that we enjoyed. This year, it was about wishing on a star. This was the first time we saw Cars and Raya, the latter of which was amazing. Unlike most of the princesses who were stick-thin, Raya was a bit chunkier, but she did amazing stunts.

After the Encanto crew performed their part, Che thought it was over. I said it’s impossible to have a Disney on Ice show without Elsa.

The Philippine crowd has always been fun and sang along to the songs. However, with sequels having come out, they incorporated those new songs instead of the classic ones. As a result, not everyone in the arena were singing.

“Let It Go” hits different than “Into The Unknown” I’ll tell you that.

After the show, we walked over to SM to find a few gifts for people and to wait for the people traffic to maybe subside a bit.

We then went striaght to our Airbnb booking in the same buildiing as Elle and Kaloi’s place to get ready for tomorrow’s gathering with the Marcaida sisters.

Vino slept through Home Alone the other night, so we spent time in the living room to watch the rest of it. Che fell asleep already, while my eyes were dropping as well. Vino was still laughing hard, so I got a snack to keep myself awake to finish the movie.

We went to the room shortly after and tried to get some sleep. It’s going to be a party tomorrow as it always is when the Marcaida sisters get a hold of a microphone for karaoke.