How to Avoid Christmas Adrenaline Rush

By: Veronica Leighton

 

Many people who are rushing and juggling their time in meeting the Holiday rush for shopping and gift-giving have their own deadlines to meet to get over and be done with the Holiday’s “things to do.” That was exactly what we did when we held our annual Christmas party on the first week of December (December 5, to be exact) at the Chamber Italian restaurant in Niles. Frankly, this was a great advice from a dear friend, Dan Gawat, some time ago. The sage advice always rings in my ears when I start hearing Christmas Carols on the airwaves, “Darling, always try to do your Christmas shopping early and hold your Christmas party ahead of others so “tapos ka na” (done with it). How true, how true…right after the big party, another smaller party among the CPRTV crew followed. with more gift-giving that coincided with LOL Host James dela Cruz’s birthday celebration. Then, the dreadful deadline for the VT December issue, our final issue of the year.. Please enjoy gleaning through the full-page pictorial of our Christmas celebration. Of course, not to be missed in this issue are the most interesting features and stories from your favorite columnists amd more beautiful photographs of happenings for the month. Sometimes happy times can be dampened by sad news, most especially during the Holiday season. At a media conference called by Ms. Vernie Velarde-Morales (Regional Director of Philippine Department of Tourism), last December 8th held at E&O Restaurant, she sadly announced to us the official end of her Chicago tenure after staying here for fifteen years and additionally, the closure of the Philippine Tourism’s Chicago office. Our senion columnist, Elsie Sy-Niebar, has dedicated almost all of her column on page 14 to Vernie and her Tourism works and even interviewed some of our community leaders for their reactions and statements on the latest insensitive act by the Philippine government in the Chicago office closure. Vernie, who is known as the “Media Darling” of Filipino media in Chicago, was the recipient of the VIA Woman of the Year award 2013 by the Chicago Filipino Asian American Hall of Fame. We will definitely miss Vernie, Bob, and their beautiful daughters. Curiously, I was thinking, first, it was the closure of the Trade Office a few years back, now the closure of the Tourism office. Will the closure of the Philippine Consulate to follow one of these days? Has Chicago not been an important post for our government officials back home anymore? How really sad. As it’s almost about time to bid farewell to 2014, we must look back and take an accountability of what we had positively done or accomplished for ourselves or for our publishing business this year. Mainly, our state-of-the-art website has been getting compliments and accolades from people who have visited it. Surely, our numbers for hits and visits have been going up so fast. If you have not visited yet, please visit www.viatimes.com or viatimes.net. Also, we are thankful for the blessings accorded to us. particularly for the great success of the 20th annual awards anniversary of the Chicago Filipino Asian American Hall of Fame 2014, for the benefit of the Chicago Philippine Reports TV (CPRTV)..sister broadcast company of VIA Times. Happy, happy birthday to James dela Cruz who celebrated his birthday through a series of parties hosted by friends and CPRTV. We will regale you with James’ birthday pictorial in our next issue next year, 2015. Have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our readers, advertisers, and friends!

photo shows the happy faces of some of the VT/CPRTV staff and friends at our annual Christmas party. (Photo by Rosie Reed)