This Christmas, our best friends bought us a beautiful mah-Jong set. This game is commonly played by Filipinos, Jewish folks and the Chinese. I grew up to this game. It’s a common Friday and Saturday night activity with my Titas and Titos.

In the most basic form, I like to call it gin rummy in blocks or tiles instead of cards. As a child, we would pretend to play but there were rules and special names like tong and pong that I didn’t get. Our parents would play til the wee hours of the night, for money, and my cousins, siblings and I would bring our pajamas as we knew we would be sleeping over!

The sounds of the tiles being pushed around, playing bartender or waitress while my parents and relatives played was fun. And being able to stay up late, watch dirty tv and late night talk shows was hysterical!

I eventually learned the basics but can’t wait to relearn this classic Filipino tradition with my friends, and teach them the ultimate Filipino thing.