looking for the Christmas spirit

Christmas in the Philippines is a big thing. The moments the months have -ber in the end, malls would play endless Christmas carols. By the time the actual day comes, I'm already sick of "give love on Christmas day."

If I were home, I'd have been hardly home attending Christmas parties left and right. And I would have had a nice little orange envelope containing the Christmas bonus and a pay slip that contains my 13th month pay. Traffic would have been terrible already, with the usual one hour trip taking two hours. At some point, I might have gone, "bah-hum-bug Christmas." But at least it's bah-hum-bug Christmas at home.

I can't even feel that the day is only three days away. The last few days have been spent cooped in Dorus attempting to write an essay but sidetracked by How I Met Your Mother episodes on the net. The essay has not come to life yet, but at least I'm halfway through HIMYM season one. What an achievement. Hurrah. Bah.

I miss Christmas at home. The food, the people, the gifts. I miss making my nephews and nieces guess what they would receive for Christmas. And they always get it right! Books! And my line, "aaaah... but you don't know which book! that is the surprise!"

There is still three days to recapture the spirit. I can only be happy that I have a great family here who misses home as much as I do. I can only be glad that we can find home in each other. Most of us have never been away from our families for Christmas, and this will be a challenge to us all.

Now, I know for sure... Christmas is REALLY about the family. It is remembering that more than 2000 years ago was a family made holy by a definitive yes by the woman despite facing the consequences of conceiving without a husband. By a definitive yes by the man despite the fact of being ridiculed for taking a woman pregnant not of his child. It is all about believing and of sacrifice...