NATIVIDAD is one of the picturesque towns of Pangasinan. It is close to some mountains, which is part of the Caraballo mountain range that extends up to the Cagayan-Isabela regions. The family home of the Hufanas is in this town and this is where Miguelita spent many a happy day when she was still a child, playing with her cousins.Aside from riding horses when available, they would also go swimming to Bachelor, a well known picnic area here in this town. Her Uncle, Mariano Hufana own properties, houses and buildings in Manila and Dagupan. His birthday falls on a December, and it is for this reason that some nieces of his were coming to Natividad to celebrate it by attending a dawn mass and having a get together in their house for breakfast..
The house faces a field that is close to a small mountain. The mountain winds sounded all night like humming voices but these were not scary..They sounded more like lullabyes, caressing you to sleep. They come only every 15 minutes or so, but you could hear them the whole night. But about 10:00 pm I fell asleep. In the morning, I was awakened by the knocking at the door. A voice told us to wake up so we can attend the dawn Mass..The church is just beside the house..It is said that the church lot was donated by Don Mariano. In those days, the rich people could just give away property lots for nothing. The lot on which the Philippine Independent Church stands in Asingan was also donated by my grandfather to the Iglesia Independencia Catolica .
Like Asingan, there was the clamorous music coming from the PA systems playing American Christmas carols. Tricycles come and go to unload massgoers..The front of the church was strung with multicolored lights. People stared at us as we come in.
After the Mass, we all went back to the house and in a short while the Natividad caroling team arrived to sing for their breakfast. Since the hostess is from California, they expected the food to be sumptous and they were not dissapointed. But they sang a number of carols before mess call came and everybody went to the table to break their fasting. As a bonus, Atty Fe Hufana, Nitz cousin distributed brand new dollar bills to all visitors after breakfast. Quite a few joined the line more than once..But there was more where it came from. Everybody left the house happy.---#
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