Setting: The Author’s Ancestral Home in Guagua, Pampanga (Christmas Time) The wooden house smells of butter, garlic, and sweet tocino from the kitchen, while the paról outside casts star-shaped light on the capiz windows. Along the street, vendors sell bibingka and puto bumbóng beside steaming kettles of salabat. Inside, cousins crowd the sala where an old radio plays carols in Kapampangan. The cool amihan breeze slips through the ventanillas as lola arranges plates on the long table for Noche Buena—queso de bola, hamon, and lumpiang sariwa—turning the home into a warm circle of stories, laughter, and faith.