"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not
be a child." ~ Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), American author and humorist.
Thinking back on my childhood, I was lucky to have great times during the Holidays. For as long as I can remember, my family always got together. It was mainly spent with my mom's side of the family. The core group was always my immediate family of four and my mom's sister's family of 4. My brother and I grew up with 2 guy cousins, about a 5 year spread between us all, my brother being the youngest. Then there's all the extended family that joined us...so at least 15 of us. As we grew older and my mom's other siblings (5 total siblings) and her many nieces and nephews started moving to the US from London and the Philippines our holiday parties became a giant bash to look forward to regardless if there's bickering going on. When the family grew like wildfire is when gift giving started getting more tedious than fun. Eventually, it became understood that it wasn't worth being in the poor house trying to get gifts for everyone....just the little kids.
Honestly, I can't even tell you what gifts I received for Christmas. I only remember the memories and the fun times I had with my family...playing games and running around with my brother and cousins, hours and hours of karaoke (my family can't get enough of my dad's rendition of Frank Sinatra's My Way =/), and the food....always the traditional filipino party food. Oh, and how can I forget the midnight masses?
When I started high school my parents and aunt & uncle decided we should go spend the days between Xmas day and New Year's Eve in Reno and ski in Tahoe. The skiing part was great. The nights spent in Reno...not so much. The hotel of choice was always Circus Circus because the adults could dump the kids at the carnival/arcade area while they went gambling for hours on end. Plus it was cheap to stay there for 3-5 days. We didn't have cell phones to track each other down then. One time my dad lost track of time and didn't come back to the room that night. He says he didn't realize he was out all night. For all we know he was doing hookers and blow. Ha! Fortunately for my folks, we were all good kids that didn't go looking for trouble so they trusted us to be good and stay together. Safety in numbers. We stopped doing that annual trip once we all started college. It was good times. I miss it.
Now that I'm a full fledged adult, even though at times I don't want to be, I cherish all those moments as a kid. The other half of my core family moved out of state in the past few years. I miss them so much. It's hard to not spend the holidays with them. We're all invited every year there, but the ones that are left in the Bay Area can't go, mainly for financial reasons and traveling during the holiday season is a big pain in the ass. The bitter side of me says..."psh...I wasn't the one who left," but I know that if they didn't have to they would have never left. I'll always wish they could come back.
This year will be especially different with my folks going back to their homeland for a special event. It'll be the first Christmas not spending it with them. The 10 yr old in me is sad about it. If I could, I wish I could go with them. Maybe next year my entire family could go together and visit my grandma there before she passes. Every year I'm fortunate that she's still alive and kicking every Christmas. I would love it if we could all party it up with her. I'm glad that my parents could go spend time with her during their trip.
So, another year over and more memories to make. I will end this post and the year with a wonderful Christmas to you all and best wishes for the New Year!
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