A Very Merry Christmas

 It was my second time to spend Christmas away from home. Uhm... Actually, I must say not-so-far-away from home or maybe... almost-but-not-quite-home. I think I should go with the latter..."almost-but-not-quite-home."

It's really cool that my sister's already in Manila; and gladly, we also have some relatives here. They're not technically the home most of us consider but... I guess in the "home strata" (if such a thing exists), they come right next to our immediate family.

Unlike last year, we celebrated the Christmas at Ate Aye's place(my eldest cousin-mother's side). We started rocking and rolling at 6:00pm when my uncles, and my aunt, and my kiddie cousins arrived. We ate dinner together and devoured as much food as we could muster. Since one of my uncles just arrived from Dubai, we had a pretty long chitchat. When we already grew tired of talking, we set-up the Magic Sing and started our endless karaoke singing. We're a family of singers... FRUSTRATED singers. We burst into laughter when my three-year old cousin insisted on singing. He memorized a couple of songs and he was simply great. Spontaneous Cuteness is really a kid's advantage. The happiness kids exude is contagious. They smile, and without you noticing it, you also smile. Time passed quite rapidly. We got preoccupied with singing that we hadn't even noticed.  Finally, it was time for the Noche Buena.

As most Christmases are, It was a sleepless night. In our case, we were actually compelled not to sleep until 2:00am since we still needed to drive Tito Renato to the airport for his flight to Davao. At 2:30, we arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 and we were surprised to see the queue. It was unreal. We have never drove someone to the airport on a 25th of December before so, we got really overwhelmed by the crowd. Spending the Christmas with your family even just for a few hours is already a huge sacrifice. 

Truth be told... I'm not a sappy person. Celebrating the Christmas with anybody is absolutely fine with me as long as they're fun to be with.... SERIOUSLY.  Most of the time, I set negative emotions aside. And.. I don't believe in missing people. I think it's all just in our head. I do admit saying "I miss you" but honestly... I don't mean it. LOL. So much for me being insensitive...

Ooooh! I almost forgot. December 24 is also my Lola's birthday. This year, we celebrated her 71st happy year. Long live my Lola and I wish her more birthdays to come. :)