My 2008 Christmas

Most can agree, it didn’t feel Christmas at all.  Firstly, breeze was not that cold unlike in early December.  It was just like any night of February and March.  Secondly, carols were scarcely heard on streets and all you can listen to is your neighbor’s Aegis songs over videoke they rented 3 days before the holiday, which they keenly used each night till 25th.  Imagine the nightly noise.  Also, majority of the houses in our village was not decorated anymore with fabulous lanterns and fancy lights.  Was that because of tighter budget or just finally saying no to the monotonous yearly “Labas. Kabit. Tanggal Tago.” process?  Anyway, moving on, I have to have traffic mentioned.  Still a severe pain in the ass.  Why wasn’t it any different on the eve of Christmas?  Traffic was still heavy when you expected everyone to be at home indulging in booze, preparing their own special fruit salad, trying to curb their kids’ urge to open gifts until 12mn, or just doing any holiday whatever.  Don’t people celebrate in front of their Christmas trees anymore?  Why were they everywhere?  And when I say everywhere, I mean Novaliches and the stretch of Commonwealth.

These things I am bitterly antagonistic about are, actually, just my description of my Bisperas.  And on top of it, I needed to hurl myself to the office because I had a shift that night.  At exactly 12 midnight, about 5 fagging hours from “log out”, I was in my comfy chair, in front of the computer, gibbering with someone over the headset (whose Christmas was yet to be celebrated after 11 hours), welcoming the most wonderful time of the year.  Err, why is now there a tone in my head?  Last Song Syndrome, perhaps.

Hmm… Thinking about it now, maybe it’s not that bad after all. My first alas dose without my family, that is.

You see, at least, I still had my Noche Buena.  Grabbed a bite whenever I had the chance to put a customer on hold or mute, and chewed as fast as I needed to.  I packed my mom’s lengua with her continuously improving white sauce, had Riel’s which was his mom’s roast turkey with gravy, and Ramram’s was his wife’s spaghetti with meatballs.  Of course, with my Chuckie drink slash dessert.  Noche Buena solved!

Aside from that, we, in our team, decided to have a real celebration, which we can call “Pagsalubong sa Pasko, Eastern Time!”  At 8am of 25th, right after work, we unrelentingly searched for a gimikan open on a holiday.  We checked our usual tambayans and all were closed.  “Buti nalang rollback ang gas,” said driver number 1, “kung san san tayo sumuot at naghanap, puro sarado.”  Eventually, we found one.  Nova Stop!  Haha.  Pinagtyagaan na, may beer tower naman eh.  It was a great bonding moment with my friends from the office, and bow, I was wasak. (Obviously, picture was taken in the office.)

Family (before leaving for work), check.  Food, check.  Beer, check.  More food, check.  My friends from work, check.

So, yeah!  Thinking about my Christmas now, it’s not that bad after all.

Aaaarrrggghhh!  My head! Damn hang over.