After Eve, etcetera

December 25, 2021.

Waking up groggily, she sits up and rests her forehead on her palms with her elbows on her knees. No, she was not hungover, she forgot to bring the only thing she was assigned to bring as per agreed last time she had a video call with her groupie. They booked a hotel room to enjoy and wait for December 25th. Ball drop and stuff. In her excitement, she forgot whether that bottle she had in her china was for Christmas or New Year.

Oh but she did not end up coming to the party empty-handed. As a reserve another friend was able to snag a bottle from his father's wine closet and brought it with him. They had that red wine instead.

They said red is for meat and white is for seafood. But when the party starts and all the conversations start rolling and you pop everything in your mouth, who checks whether they had that combination still in mind?

It was a fun night. A lot of catching up since they were all confined in their homes and each one decided to spend their Christmas with their families or housemates instead of risking going out, meeting up like the usual and risking bringing home the dreaded virus that's been going around. They were all laughing at who seemed to have fluffed up within the year, gushing at the story of who found love despite the lockdown, etcetera.

She got up and started the coffee maker. The mood is a lot lighter every Christmas. More. Uhm. Cheery if you must put in a single word to describe it. It seems that at some point, people were programmed to feel light and worry-free, chirpy, etcetera at a global scale even. She knows no Grinch or Scrooge but she knows there are some.

She opened the fridge and started to choose which food from last night to heat up. This is also one of the common things that happen during this season. Loads of food in the eve and for some reason there are still a lot of food after eve that could last maybe until the next celebration - New Year. She sure is ain't complaining. The supply lasting for long and reheating sure does save some pennies.

"Which one should be consumed first?" She thought. "Salad version 1? Salad version 2? Ham version 1? ham version 2? Leche flan ala Tita Maricon? Lech flan ala Oliver?" She decides to pick ham version 1 which is a pork as opposed to ham version two which is chicken. And noted to taste Tita Maricon's leche flan first.

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She placed it in the microwave oven to heat, fixed up her coffee which means just pouring in the coffee to her favorite morning mug because in reality she does not really have any other "fix" for her morning coffee except that it has to be black. The door bell rang and a kid shouted "Merry Christmas". She is very thankful she lives on the second deck. She is not obligated to answer those door bells specially when she is not yet ready to talk to anyone, face anyone or even go down a flight of steps she had to go back up to after the transaction. Lazy hours she says. The couple below her unit usually are the ones who like throwing back the lines , "Who's there?" and "To whom is that for?" and then slowly opening the gate to see who rang it.

Few nights back she walked along the streets and watched in fascination as kids ran around house to house with their makeshift instruments - flattened bottle caps stringed together using a wire knotted on both ends to create a tambourine, empty small cans of condensed milk, filled with road pebbles as an alternate for a maracas, an empty bigger can of milk to strapped on a belt around the waist to use as a drum.

She remembers when she was younger and she used to join her friends around the neighborhood too to do the same. But back then, they sing four COMPLETE songs and proper lyrics. These days, kids jump from one or two lines and start greeting the house they rang "Merry Christmas, po!" marking that they have ended their singing and are now waiting for goodies. They now have the abridged version or the next generation remix of some sort. That happens usually days before Christmas.

Then after eve, the kids just go around the neighborhood, ring the door bell and greet "Merry Christmas, po!" Haha. No more singing just a lot of ringing and greeting. She is fascinated with that shift.

She pulls out her microwaved ham and started to simulate in her head how the conversation between the old couple and the kid that rang their bell. She has witnessed some of these meetings because she can see them from the balcony of her place. She was sure the old man smiled at the kid and started a bit of a conversation. Normally, the couple would even be able to invite the intru-visitor to a short prayer. It is their way of being generous in this season - redirecting the thoughts from the gift to the Giver of gifts.

You see, we are programmed to be joyous because of gift-giving, reunions, vacations, etcetera, during this time of the year that we ignore our souls being weary and yearning for a reconnection to Jesus - the real reason why we had Christmas in the first place.

This fascinates her. How a lot will be consumed by the joyous festivity and then after eve, and the days after, people seem to go back to regular programming.

She wonders. After eve, what did people celebrate?

Hola wonderful READ-itizens! Merry Christmas! Been a while since I was able to put up any at all. Breaking the silence with this scene in my head just typing it down as it comes.

How was and is your celebration/s? What's your story?

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