With four days left till Christmas, I am filled with a slight nervousness for the celebration up ahead. The house is decorated and the tree is trimmed and lighted, and most of the gifts intended to be given away are already wrapped. As for the anticipated Christmas feast, one more stop at the supermarket is all what is needed to follow my paella recipe. I have only so much time left to make the occasion into a memorable one for me and my family.
The Christmas that I have come to know now as a wife and a mother is different from how I remember it when I was younger. I grew up celebrating Christmas Eve with relatives at my grandparents' place. There was the midnight meal, and the opening of gifts right after it. It was hectic, full of noise and wholesome family fun. During the evenings leading up to the occasion, I would go caroling with my cousins and friends around the neighborhood. We'd sing our choruses with a handmade tambourine using a piece of wire and flattened bottlecaps. We'd see the fronts of houses decorated with blinking lights and lanterns that we call "parol". Sometimes, we would watch a community-sponsored Christmas show, and participate in an exchange-gift giving activity.
There have been changes in our family tradition, mainly in that Christmas is mostly celebrated mainly at home. Thus, I am now charged with the responsibilities of planning and readying our place for the big Christmas meal. Lately, I have been finding some unease being around crowded gatherings and so now I look forward to having quieter get-togethers. At least, I'd have the evening's program go according to the way I expected.
So now I find myself a bit off the edge, though excited just the same. Until every single thing is in its place, I won't be able to feel the sentiment behind "...all is calm, all is bright..."
