Afternoon Christmas Delights

Its Christmas afternoon of 2004. I'm cozying up in my brother's room contemplating on the niceties of my life. The 3rd floor of this building makes it special enough for me to gaze the sky and appreciate the calmness of the season. Right at the heart of Manila near the business district of Makati, it's rare to experience such slowness in a normal day. A rowdy traffic and noisy street is already a part of my daily life. But not today, because it's a holiday. Six hours ago, I just came from my work in a call center. I've been working graveyard shifts for three years and holidays are no exception. For some reason, this Christmas is special in such a way that all my siblings are complete and together with my mom we celebrated it as a family after my dad passed away three years ago. This morning, on the eve of Christmas, we call it “Noche Buena” (dawn feast) it’s very unusual that my mom didn’t prepare the food. We had it ordered and catered. We just treated ourselves with each other’s company less the hassle of the preparations. It’s also the first time in many years that I wasn’t able to wrap gifts for my family. I refuse to be pressured by commercialism. Plus I always treat them whenever I am able, so I am just relaxing this year. Or not really, a week before Christmas, aside from my graveyard shifts at work, my schedule is filled up with singing engagements primarily because of church where I am a back-up singer. Five hours of sleep is already an indulgence for me and today is no exception. After coming home this morning, I had a light sleep for four hours and now am up writing this journal. It’s a treat that my eldest brother is here. Most of the time, he’s abroad doing missionary work or business abroad. My other sister on the other hand is also a minister and quite busy as usual. I can remember my mom’s face this early morning; she can’t contain her happiness seeing all five of us together. I can’t help but laugh at her jokes that she’s already looking forward to have grandkids. She kidded that she sensed that her grandkids are on the way because she has been receiving stuffed toys as gifts (three stuffed animals), and prior to that she had a dream about three of her grandkids. And so I just kissed her on the cheek because I find it so endearing of her. While I’m writing this blog in the middle of two beds where two of my brothers are sleeping, I woke one of them and showed him my work. My eldest brother is just staying here for Christmas and will fly away to Australia and Singapore and then back here for New Year. He surprised me when he pointed out his own blog created as early as 1999. It just led me again to the conclusion that writing runs in the blood. My dad is a journalist. All his life, he makes a living out of public relations through journalism, writing for politicians and actors in major publications. He did that without formal schooling mind you. My mom on the other hand is the highly educated one. Having four degrees in accounting, finance, business and economics. She never tires of learning new stuff, enrolling herself in various short courses aside from her post studies. Now at 6o, she’s writing for a call center based in New York. All of us in the family have had editorial backgrounds back in our high school and college days. I find it liberating to write down my thoughts not to say that it subconsciously help me memorize what I will share to other people the next time I go out with them for coffee since I have already structured my thoughts.