Our three balikbayan boxes are already on their way to Manila. I am now assembling a fourth one in my head. Mom hasn’t actually really started packing yet even if she’s due to fly back to Manila. (sniff.. sniff..) Probably because most of her things were in those three balikbayan boxes. We are also in a quandary about the reduced baggage allowance of 50 lbs each instead of what had been 70 lbs last year.
She is already insisting she will be able to bring everything, but my mother-in-law and I are already telling her we can always send whatever she leaves behind in a fourth box. (I currently have four empty and yet-to-be-assembled boxes up in the attic. The courriers make sure to replace each box sent with a vacant box so that makes the usually $5 box free. I got three in replacement for the three I sent and I have that extra one I bought for good measure.)
I also know that most of the things I mean to send will not be brought home for lack of space or for going over the maximum allowable weight, so I’m already making a list of what my fourth box will contain. So my story continues..
Pinay New Yorker 