welcome to december

Tis the first day of the last month of the year and once again, it's that season for holiday cheers and jeers and Santa Claus and not to mention Christmas gifts and noche buena or Christmas dinner which is still, at this point in time, still a question of location for us -- whether to be with my parents in Laguna or celebrate it in our new apartment.

Personally, I'd like to hold the Christmas celebrations here in our Makati apartment for a change. For the past several years, since Elvie and I got married, all our Christmas Eves and noche buenas have been held at our parents home in San Pedro, Laguna. While there is certainly nothing bad about doing it there again this year, I just feel that we ought to change the tradition (same case with New Years where after the media noche it has become a tradition for my parents to tune in to the TV or listen to the radio for news on how many fellers got their digits demolished by firecrackers).

Plus, it's the first Christmas that will be truly enjoyed by Ikai and it just feels right to hold it here in our little home. I've extended the invitation to both my mother and father and while they're ok with the idea, the inevitable "Pano yung bahay?" question cropped up which effectively meant "no, we cannot leave the house on Christmas". The argument here is that robbers (of which the akyat-bahay variety is the usual suspect) might just decide to drop by and wish us a Merry Christmas with no one even there and decide to cart off with all sorts of valuable things. I think my parents never ever recovered when we were burglarized in the same house in 1988.

It's been a financially-trying 2007 for my wife and I. But we hope things will get better next year. That's one commodity that never ever gets scarce -- hope. It's a smallish Christmas celebration for us, no doubt. But we make the best of things and we have the best Christmas gift already anyways -- a gift with a penchant for being makulit, matakaw yet nakakatuwa. Our bundle of joy -- Ikai -- is truly a most wondrous gift someone can receive from jolly, old St. Nick.

Well, welcome to December and Merry Christmas :P