Oct
17
it’s almost christmas
October 17, 2007 | |
yes, that most joyous time of the year is just a few ticks away on our calendars. what better proof than the road traffic getting worse by the day. i think they call it the christmas rush.
for what has been my family’s practice for four years now, we always start building on a festive atmosphere at home in late october. doing this builds on a happy momentum regardless of whether there’s penny to spend or not. over the weekend, we’ve brought out our christmas trees and trimmings from the stock room and have arranged them all over the house. every morning when i wake up, i almost always turn on a christmas album on the player while getting myself ready for work. even at the office, i play some christmas tunes when i feel like taking a break from work.
and here are some of the favorites on my christmas list:
favorite song: the christmas song (nat king cole version). listening to this song makes one wish it’s christmas forever. this song is sentimental in a relaxing kind of way, even if i have never in my entire life actually seen a snow or the jackfrost that it talks about.
favorite food: hamon. sometimes i feel a noche buena would not be complete without this. skip all the other treats but not this please. hehehe
fondest christmas memory: i think i was about eight years old then. those were hard times for my family. my birthday is a few days before christmas and because of the situation, i had no handa on my birthday. i felt sad but that was nothing compared to the thought that we shall be having nothing at all to feast on and share at noche buena. beside the tree twigs my mother and i have made into our christmas tree, i uttered a fervent prayer for a miracle to happen: that somehow i’d find food served at noche buena. and a miracle did happen. to my surprise, the mailman arrived late in the afternoon of my birthday delivering a letter (with a few hundred dollars inside) from my lola in the u.s. since then, i have started believing in miracles and in the power of prayers. i swear i have started believing again in santa claus and in the magic that is christmas.
