While people have professed missing Christmas back home, I haven't really had that raw, gnawing feeling about missing it. It's not that I hate, no I love the season. My memories of Christmas as a child has always been bittersweet. I was always excited about preparing for it, of my dad asking us to make a list of what we need for the occasion, of ham and queso de bola, of our family's own version of morcon (which we later realized was actually embotido), of cold weather, of buko/macaroni salad that days later would be eaten straight from mayonnaise or kaong jars, of waking up the day after from the noise of relatives coming to our house early in the morning. And of course, my elder siblings coming home from Manila to celebrate the holidays with us. We didnt have a tradition of gift giving. What we had was a tradition of eating and feeding and giving out food to neighbors. The bitter part was when my older siblings would have to leave and go back to Manila again.
A couple of days back I suddenly miss Christmas back home. Maybe it's the simbang gabi. I suddenly missed the Christmas atmosphere. Endless eating, partying, merrymaking. Of people excited to go on vacation and going back home. Here, the Christmas season means people going out of the country. Back home, it means people going back HOME.
It's the 23rd of December and Im at work. No, Im not dragging myself to work. In fact Im pumped up these past couple of days/weeks. I love writing this report. And when I opened Google, this was what greeted me.
And a warm feeling engulfed my heart. It brings me back to my childhood. Christmas at home.
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