Unlike the previous years, there was no traditional Noche Buena dinner for the Alas family this year.

Instead of having a grand feast with all their children and grandchildren present, Ateneo de Manila University assistant coach Louie Alas and his wife, Liza, are in the United States, cheering, supporting and praying for the basketball career of their youngest son, Kieffer.

“Of course, you always want to be with everyone, right? But it looks like we won’t be together because Kieffer and my wife, Liza, will be here,” Alas told DAILY TRIBUNE in a phone conversation.

“Even after Christmas Day, they have training because they have more games in California on the 26th. It is what it is. We’ll just have to stay connected. Even if we’re here in the United States, my three kids and our grandchildren are staying together in the Philippines.”

Christmas celebration in the Alas household has always been special.

NLEX playmaker Kevin and his wife, Selina, will drop to be with his other brothers like Kristoffer, Kenneth and, of course, Kieffer. If Kevin doesn’t make it due to the Philippine Basketball Association’s demanding Christmas Day schedule, Alas makes sure that Kieffer and his other sons will still be together.

After all, family is what Christmas is all about.

“Most of the time, we’re at our family house in Las Piñas for Noche Buena and Media Noche. Although they already have their own families, they still make sure to celebrate with us,” said Alas, recalling how they celebrate their Christmas Eve.

But this year, it’s different.

With Kieffer trying to crack into the regular rotation of Layton Christian Academy with the goal of playing college ball for a Division I school in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Alas family had to make a huge sacrifice on Christmas Day.

Instead of having a feast, Alas family celebrated it on different sides of the world with Kieffer locked in as he tries to become the latest homegrown Filipino to see action in a major American collegiate league.

Alas, however, is hardly bothered.

“Yeah, the sacrifice that we need to make. I told you, just Zoom, and it’s okay. So, it’s like you’re all together in spirit,” said Alas, who flew to Utah shortly after the Blue Eagles’ campaign in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.

“We’re here, but we’re not with Kieffer. So, we’ll just Zoom with our kids in the Philippines. Those are the sacrifices that you need to make if you want to develop and improve as a person, not just as an athlete.”

In the end, Christmas became less about what was missing and more about what was being built. 

The elder Alas knew that if he wanted to see his youngest son playing in a major program, having a noche buena with his entire family would have to wait.

His family’s support meant showing up where it mattered most, even when it meant standing apart. And in that quiet American winter, the Alas family found something familiar — a shared belief that sacrifice, when anchored in love, always finds its way home.