Few more days and we will be celebrating Christmas. How's your preparation guys? I assume those who are working already received their 13th month pay. How was it? Were you satisfied? Mine was received last Monday . Though I haven't received my whole 13th month as we are working in skeletal and computation was pro-rated. Still I am thankful for it.
Today, before I start I just want to say thanks Ms. @Bmjc98 and Ms. @Jane. Thank you for sharing your blessings. I appreciate it.
You guys better check their articles. I am telling you, it was fun!
.https://read.cash/@Jane/bch-gift-giving-in-the-real-world-4a1e1fb0 https://read.cash/@bmjc98/give-love-give-bch-and-more-64ebac13
What is Christmas?
If you're gonna ask the most reliable google, Christmas is define as " the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on December 25 in the Western Church".
What about you? How do you defined Christmas?
This is actually my entry for Ms @gertu13 writing contest. I don't actually have a plan to join as I just recently resumed in read cash and I am not that confident in my writing skills. However, I changed my mind, besides there is no harm in trying right?
So, if you're gonna ask me, when I heard the word "Christmas" what comes into my mind is "Family and Holiday". Now, let me take you back into my childhood and how we spend Christmas.
A glimpse of my Christmas before.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't grow up from in well off family. We are actually residing in the countryside. Where all you can see are trees and all you can hear are the sounds of nature. We don't even have electricity. We are just using an improvised kerosene lamp or what we called in our language "gasera".
Our life was just simple and I don't know what is life outside our Barrio. I could say December is my favorite month because it means we could have sliced bread and "pancit". You can't blame me, what I always ate are vegetables and root crops for merienda. During this month, we are busy collecting "ferns". My father is accepting an order from someone in the city who is decorating in church for weddings. Since most of the time, many choose to marry in this month. This means more order for us. I could not remember how much it cost as I could remember only we were preparing a thousand pieces of FERNS.
As I remember, I was five years old that time when my Father and Mother let me go with them in the City to deliver those ferns. I was so excited and I brushed my slippers to make sure it is clean and wore my most presentable clothes. After we delivered it successfully, we stopped in a public market to buy food for noche buena. Usual, Nanay bought pancit, some veggies for ingredients and sardines. A pack of sliced bread and star margarine. Margarine was our favorite spread. When we passed by a sari-sari store, Nanay asked me if I wanted to buy something as I might hungry. I said yes, so she let me choose. You know what I chose? "A detergent powder", please forgive me for being naïve. It was just it was the most colorful in my eyes. I know nothing about those. I haven't seen it in our neighborhood. I felt so embarrassed as some people laughed at me.
The Arrival of Santa Claus.
Aside from our special Noche Buena, my sisters and I were so excited for the arrival of Santa with our gifts. We don't actually have a wish for my Nanay always told us that Santa would give a gift which he thinks is the best for us. On that Christmas eve, were so sad as Santa wasn't able to pass by our home. The plastic we hung outside was empty as we woke up. I was thinking that maybe I did something bad and Santa was mad at me. A few minutes later, my older brother arrived. He came from the city where he is working. He was actually panting as if he came from running. Then he told me " Ne ( my nickname short for Nene), I was about to cross the river when I saw Santa holding a big sack full of gifts. He is already on his way to the town proper. So I ran as fast as I could to catch him. But then he ran so fast but this fell from his sack" He then handed me a white shorts. " I am sorry, Manong ( the way we address our older brother) didn't able to catch Santa".
So imagined what I felt thinking about a sack of gifts Santa is carrying but then he didn't drop anything in our house. Still I was happy as I got a new shorts. Thankful as at least there is something that fell from his sack.
Closing thoughts.
While I was writing, I was actually smiling as I reminisced about those happy childhood of mine. On how we are content with simple things that our parents can afford. Besides, Christmas is not about material things but it's about spreading love.
As for my Manong who chased Santa Claus, I always make sure to buy his children gifts every Christmas because I can't promise I can manage to chase Santa.
That's all for today and I hope you enjoy reading.
Wahh our childhood memories are almost the same, the lamp, the fern that grow in our yard and the bread and margarine. It's simple yet fun.