Holidays 2007

I am back in New York, arriving early Monday evening into an almost springlike weather in the city. Wow, thanks, Manhattan, for the "warm" welcome!

Being New York based for most of the year sure doesn't help anymore when I come return home for the holidays. Every year it just seems to be worse for me in terms of adjusting to the climate change. Yeah, it must be age catching up with me but I refuse to admit that so scratch that idea. Of the 3 and a half weeks I was home, I had a bad asthma attack for a week and then an unstable stomach for another. The asthma was quickly relieved with prescriptions from Francis with some changes required by the chief family doctor, our mom. The stomach situation lasted a bit longer because I refused to take any medication, hoping it would help me lose some weight. Yeah right, even that didn't help with all the bingeing for the holidays. Not when we were jumping from one buffet lunch to another!

Being home early for the holidays made decorating my parent's house a major assignment. I have always loved doing it, though and it seems nothing lets you face up to the reality of the season than stringing 10 sets of lights onto a giant 8-foot tree and ending that task with a dizzy spell. So this year, I decided to use two small trees (picture above)! They looked lovely, don't you think so, lit up in green and another in red! And the best thing was, not much labor required removing the decors and lights after the holidays - I did it sitting down!

And then there was all the food! First there was noche buena for Christmas, media noche to welcome the New Year's and then my parent's wedding anniversary on the 5th of January. Through the holidays we went through a 15 pound turkey, an 8 pound ham, fruit salad, macaroni salad, paella, morcon, Nicole's lasagna, and the traditional calandracas soup for the New Year's. Food was a favorite gift in the Philippines and most friends dropped by to say hello with a tray of either a viand, a cake or some other goodies.

There was of course always time to meet up with friends, catching up with stories. I always am ask why I go home every year. I always say that it is in the hope that I could catch up on the lives of people I love what I miss in the 11 months that I am away. This year I realized that was not possible. People move on, people change and maybe in the few weeks that I am home they are able to give me a glimpse of what life is about but whatever I have missed I can no longer gain back. In a way this is the painful reality of being based abroad - that the longer I pursue life in New York, I more I become disconnected from that life I have in Manila. And there is no way I can pursue a parallel life. One just gets left behind as the one moves forward. No one waits for you.

Most of things that I have associated with the holidays have stayed the same though - the group of kids who sing Christmas songs with their homemade instruments made of flattened bottle caps and drums from empty cans, the reverberating PA system of the Catholic church broadcasting the Simbang Gabi mass at 4AM and the karaoke parties of the neighbors. Well, somehow it is nice to know that some things back home hasn't changed.