Christmas Past

I have always, always spent Christmas at Cebu Avenue. This is the first Christmas I have spent away from home. As you know, we are starting anew and now I have a new place to call home. (Or is it 'Now I have to call a new place home'?)

Although we did have a very good Christmas here, I think my mind will always wander back to the Cebu Avenue living room on Christmas mornings. We would wake everyone up at the wee hours of the morning and check out the gifts under the Christmas tree. As children, we never did the Noche Buena thing so waking up at 5:30am was not a big issue. We wanted to be able to open gifts as early as possible and have enough time to take breakfast before catching the 9 am mass.

We used to have piles of gifts under the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree would be in the corner on a Christmas tree skirt with all our names. (Was I the one who practiced my calligraphy and made outlines of our names on the tree skirt? Did we paint it using the Tri-Chem? I don't remember now.) The tree would have been put up some time early December and decorated with an assortment of Christmas ornament gathered through the years. A star would be placed on the top of the tree and the lights would go around. As gifts were received from godparents, family and friends, these were placed under the tree.

On Christmas Eve, family members would place his/her gifts for the others under the tree before going to sleep on Christmas eve. Imagine ten people giving gifts to nine other people. (RD's math tells me that there would be at least ninety gifts under the tree!). Our gifts would often be simple (hair clips or stickers or the like), practical (T-shirts or books), whimsical (puzzles) or fun (toys or games). If bigger gifts were in the Christmas list, siblings would pitch in and split the cost so that the gift could be bought. The wrapper would range from fancy Betsy Clark (either for or from London Eye) to practical Manila Bulletin (signature Slash-M and J). If it were wrapped "innovatively", in all likelihood, Mindy was the giver of the gift (Snap-Wrap has yet to be patented). We would play the Ray Conniff Christmas CD (I have a copy of the CD with me and perhaps this is the first year I have not played it since it is still in its shipping box) and sing along and "... count our blessings instead of sheep." If it was cold on that particular Christmas morning, we would look for the blue mink blanket (which I believe is with Eldest Sis now).

Someone would be in charge of distributing gifts. Names would be called out and piles of gifts would be formed in the living room. When all the gifts had been distributed, we would wake Father and Mother up (if they were not yet awake) and then we would open our gifts. My memory fails me ... I don't know if we opened gifts one by one or if everybody opened their gifts at the same time. All I know is that by the time Mother called us for breakfast, there was wrapping paper and gifts galore all over the floor.

Breakfast would usually include food we had received as Christmas gifts -- ensaymada, ham, apples, oranges, grapes, etc. If we were lucky, we'd have hot chocolate as part of our meal.

Christmas mass would be the 9am mass at Twin Hearts. After which we would be preparing for Christmas lunch. (Yes, more food.)

Christmas lunch was special because relatives we hardly see during the year would make the effort to drop by and have lunch with us. There was always a lot of food because we are quite a big clan and we never really knew who would come. I think Mother's invitation was never really RSVP. It was more "you know where to find us, if you are free for lunch, come on over."

Father's brother would come with his family, usually bringing extra fruits or dessert. Most of the other visitors were Mother's cousins and their families. Sometimes family friends would find their way to the house and join us. We had a particular aunt who would often come home for Christmas from the US. She was always fun to have around. And prior to one of her sons taking up photography, she would be the one pulling out her camera and calling everyone for a group photo. As things turned digital, she was still holding on to her camera with film and manual focus. (I should ask her to scan our family photos over the years. That would be a sight to see.)

This family gathering has dwindled to fewer relatives in the recent years as more of my generation has gotten married. I suppose many have conflicting lunch obligations, some have moved away, others are probably just too tired from the Christmas Eve activities. Regardless of the number of people, if I know Mother, rain or shine she will prepare Christmas lunch and will welcome those who comes over for Christmas lunch with open arms.