Life, Day by Day

From an epicurean point of view, Christmas is a season of indulgence especially in eating and drinking.  It is during this time of year that all kinds of appealing, mouth-watering, delectable, savory, delicious, inviting, tantalizing, luscious, tasty, enticing, yummy food can be seen and eaten. Of course, with all these temptations to the palate, people can get all kinds of stomach trouble, most common of which are dyspepsia, commonly called heartburn or acid reflux.  This is why it is important to watch what we eat and not overindulge.  Still, there are many ways to eat, drink and be merry this Christmas without getting indigestion from all that rich food.

"A dream is a wish your heart make" Christmas 2014 About the same time last year, a fledging Negrense Blogging Society, Inc better known as the Negros Bloggers celebrated Christmas with a simple dinner and a fun Karaoke Night afterwards. Before going home, we had our group picture taken with the L'Fisher Hotel Bacolod as backdrop. Someone laughingly wished out loud for our next Christmas party to be held there. We all agreed to keep our fingers crossed, after all wishes can come true!

As time passes and the kids grown, gift giving during Christmas has taken on a new meaning.  Gone are the days of  frantic shopping and excited faces while unwrapping gifts. It is quite hard to look for gifts for my loved ones, because basically, they do not have a lack of things.  And so, with only 42 more days till Christmas, I still do not have the slightest idea on what gifts to give, that is until I read the SM Christmas Bears of Joy Campaign, where for just Php 200, I can keep one bear to give as a gift, and donate the other to children of various orphanages and charitable institutions through the SM Cares Program . What a great idea! It is taking gifting to the next level!  I can just imagine how happy a child will be getting this soft and cuddly bear to hug and to hold.  But lest we forget, Christmas is not just about the gift we get, but more so about the love that comes with it. Each Christmas bear I plan to give, will come with a message...

A friend posted on Facebook that they for the first time, will be spending Christmas in the hospital. It brought to mind our own hospital Christmas experience in 1976.   My brother Ted who survived a freak airgun shooting accident in July had been in the Iloilo Doctor's Hospital for the past 5 and a half months, slowly recovering from 6 major operations.  My brother and I who were both studying in Manila would be spending the holidays with him, our parents and Culing, my Lola's ever loyal cook cum helper. 

The year 2013 will soon end...and I suddenly think, where did all that time go?  In fact, it's more like...where did all those years go?  Like the song Sunrise, Sunset in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (with a little twist)..."I don't remember growing older...when did I? Wasn't it yesterday, When I was small?"

This Christmas 2012 is probably one of the busiest holiday season ever for me.  It's weird because there are only a few relatives left here in my area, so except for the usual family gatherings on Christmas and New Year's eve, we have nothing planned.  However, there were so many other activities both at work and our volunteer organizations, invitations from friends for baptisms, weddings and other gatherings, that I found myself tired at the end of each day with no energy left to go online.  Or maybe because I am back at work and it now entails traveling (driving) a total of 40 or so kilometers a day. This situation should have given me a lot of stress but wonder of wonders, I actually did not mind not getting my daily 6-10 hours online fix.  Oh wow! I am not addicted to the internet!

It is just a few more weeks till Christmas and without a regular salary, this holiday season will be a little different from last year's celebration.  But this is not the first time that our family will have a simple Christmas...we experienced this in the late 70's when my brother had his accident and we were financially drained. However, just like then, we will not be any less festive or joyous because the essence of Christmas is love ...and we have plenty of that to give around and to share.  We will be putting up our Christmas decorations starting tomorrow and our Advent wreath will be ready too. The only thing we will be missing out on is the requisite gift-giving...which is really unessential and can be dispensed with in relation to the true meaning of Christmas.  Besides, our family practice is to give each other meaningful tokens on special occasions...nothing big but something that is well thought of and not given for giving's sake.  For needs, they can get ...

Christmas when I was a child was all about tradition...the family gatherings at my grandparents whether in Manila or in Silay, the "you have to go to sleep or Santa won't come" threat after dinner, the opening of gifts and noche buena at midnight, the Christmas morning breakfast and mass, and luncheon with all the other relatives and extended families.  After my maternal grandfather died, my maternal grandmother soon after moved to Bacolod.  Although Christmas celebrations continued to be traditional, it stayed local...meaning we stopped going to Manila for the holiday season.  Then my uncle (Dad's brother) and paternal grandfather died within a month of each other.  And so, that year because my Dad's side of the family did not want to celebrate in Silay with all the memories of Christmas past, we went to Manila and Christmas Eve was spent in a hotel room near Paco Park and New Year's eve in the boat coming back to Negros. 

Today is Christmas Day ...a few more hours and it will be a day of the past. I went to hear mass at 11 AM, having overslept after our noche buena celebration which ended at about 2 AM. As I listened to the sermon, the words of the priest struck a note because he talked about something which I needed to hear.