The whole family immediately felt Christmas in the air when we visited UPLB Christmas Park. The Giant Christmas Tree, The Manger and Santa’s Sleigh were all sights to behold!!!

The sun was still up when we got there. We had some corn on the cob, “kwek-kwek”, peanuts and “puto-bumbong” as we waited for the sun to set and for the lights to turn on. Finally, UPLB boasts off the magnificence of its decorations. All eyes looked with amazement, and I mean all, not just the kids’ but ours adults as well.

Apparently UPLB, which is known for academic excellence is also home to creative geniuses. The kids’ favorite was Santa in his Sleigh and my 3-year old son was smiling and very cooperative the whole time for he knew good kids receive good gifts from good old Santa.

In a few minutes, the crowd has become so huge because apparently, there were many of us scattered within the campus and nearby areas, all awaiting the moment.

I remembered UPLB Christmas decorations as symbolic but simple. After seven Christmases away, decorations remained symbolic but I don’t think what I saw qualifies as simplistic. Decorations have become more elaborate but generally have evolved beautifully.

UPLB Christmas Park, as I call it was definitely worth the family’s time. The campus is near from where we live, the park is free and is for everybody, so we will definitely come back a number of times more.

We find aero dancing as a fun way of exercising. Papa Sez and I have been dancing our way to fitness for several months now.  We do it in the comfort of our home using dance exercise videos or outdoors together with the UPLB community.  Since aero dance is becoming a regular activity, I tried to combine it with family bonding time by bringing along all our kids.  It’s a good opportunity for our kids to imbibe the health and fitness-conscious culture of the community segment that frequent the UPLB Freedom Park, I thought.  They may get enticed to dance with us or maybe not but they always look forward to running and playing on the wide open grass-covered ground and also, eating the hot pandesal we usually buy along the way…until the rains ruined the agenda. 

When it rains, aero dance sessions are done inside Baker Hall and playing in the field is no longer that enjoyable. The wet grasses is highly repulsive to most of my kids who do not want to wet their shoes when they play and they find the situation not worthy of waking up early on a weekend. Our eldest child, who ironically is a good dancer, spoke up and requested to extend her asleep instead of joining us. Though half-hearted, I gave in to the request and declared that only those who are willing to spend their early Saturday mornings with us, regardless of what awaits us at the UPLB Freedom Park, will be enjoined.

Last Saturday, we were not expecting a child companion, but our 3-year old son declared his interest and woke up early that day. We were lucky that the aero dance was done out in the open field, and our son who was well-behaved while we dance, was given a few minutes of running in the field before rain started to pour again. Though the rain cut it short, the three of us really had a great time. Next Saturday, our 8-year old son will be coming with us too. Who knows, headcount will be complete again before long.

Please view the video to see how diverse the community is but people were obviously united by love of dancing and physical fitness.