Since I was a kid Christmas season has always been the time of the year I look forward to. I'm sure my sisters and cousins will all agree with me, it's when we collect gifts from uncles and aunties and gather around my grandparent's small living room to play all sorts of game that will win us even more presents. And even now that (ugh) I'm already an adult, I still look forward to it. Though my expectations are so much different now where the major thing is the transition from receiving gifts to actually being the one to play Santa and give away boxes after boxes of modestly wrapped presents. Even if for the past five years it means that there wouldn't be any "piso" to keep from the Christmas bonus to start up the controversial "savings plan". I like the inconvenience (mainly because the names won't stop) it brings me whenever I make up that Christmas list (which is useless anyway when I finally step into the shopping centers or when I pass by bazaars), even if it brings me sleepless nights because the 13th month tax free pay hasn't come in yet (which is the shopping money). And oh boy, after I get the cheque, shopped for hours and had my three persona named - me, myself and I fought over being selfish and selfless for the season, the joy and yes the thrill of wrapping presents is uncontainable. Last year, the plan was to let my beloved nephew help out in wrapping gifts, but I had to let him sleep in first before I lay down all the presents in the living room and get started because he ends up opening the plastic covers of coloring books and boxes of toy! And so I had to switch to plan B before he ends up putting them away to his storage boxes and next thing I know I have to shop around again. That was my last year's Christmas season.
This year I moved to a place where I'll have my first white Christmas. But it doesn't feel like it. I'm quite slow and friends can attest to that but it's over a month from now before Christmas and there's no Christmas-sy feel yet, the kind that make you remember the "simbang gabi" (nine-day novena masses) so well you can almost relive it. Until I got to work Tuesday morning in Starbucks. My manager is setting it all up, opening boxes after boxes, he filled our kiosk with everything red. New mugs and tumblers, fancy menu board and even snowflakes stick-ons, he even hand me out my new red shirt. Then I realized I'll be making the holiday favorite drinks too! It was a happy moment I tell you and then it dawned on me that yes Christmas is just around the corner and I only got a little over thirty days to soaked into the holiday feeling. The decorating didn't end with my shift though, later that night I was invited by two new friends from church to come over their place and join them in putting up the tree, fixing garlands and of course setting up the Christmas village! I even put up the red hair angel (aka Becky) on top of Liza's gorgeous tree! Then there's the fireplace (tv screensaver that is *wink*), the apple caramel warm drink (that is so delicious) and the holiday movie entitled Elf - I don't know about you but it totally geared me up for the Christmas season.
But not everybody is in the mood yet. The moment I step back in the Starbucks kiosk the next day there I met all kinds of people, from the genuinely excited individual to the "Grinch" type of person. And after sharing my smile that day to each people I met in front of the till I suddenly thought about all these things that I'm writing about. I'm pondering about my own Christmas tradition that I started a few years back. In the past years, it was easy to set my mood because everything back home reminds of the holiday season and here it seems like I have to look at my core and bring the "feel" of the season from inside out. Here, I can't depend on anyone else beside my own faith and to keep it I have to work on it. I can't let myself get tossed by the Grinch and rationalize the reasons for being elaborate on just about anything about this season. Because really there is a simple yet truthful fact about being all hyped up this season and that is showing my ever growing Christian faith.
Growing up figuratively doesn't stop. And times like this makes me realize how much I've grown (again figuratively) over the years. And it is my own choice if I let Christmas come late or keep the attitude all year 'round.
