Current location:	Bedroom
Current mood:	lazy
Current music:	You hear that? It's the winds of change...
Entry tags:	christmas, family, life

broken traditions
Christmas traditions... I'm pretty sure every Filipino family has one. For the past 24 Christmases (that I've lived through), we've been staying up late, waiting for the clock to strike twelve then have Noche Buena. Back in the day, when my parents were still together (insert BG music: "Gone", cue eyeliner), we'd prepare lots of food, have our Christmas dinner, then some hot chocolate. The tree would be overflowing with presents and we would gather around it to open them while 80s Christmas songs would be playing in the background.

Year after year, the celebration became simpler than the last -- less food, less presents, less time. We used to stay up till around 2 - 3 AM. We used to spend time together while waiting for Christmas Eve. Recently, we've been cheating by squeezing in naps while waiting for midnight to come. Noche Buena itself became less festive. We'd still have hot chocolate, the 80s Christmas songs (alternating with Disney and Mariah Carey now, in fairness), and a few laughs but it wasn't the same. We'd open our presents, have a few pictures, take our stuff then go back to our rooms.

But it's probably just us getting old. Every year, I feel less and less Christmas-y during the holiday season. Maybe reality is catching up to me. Hell, I only started shopping for gifts two days ago. And I didn't go all out, not in this state of recession, just my family, the helps, a couple of godchildren (IKR), and my best friend. The "holiday spirit" was so absent that I didn't even want to share how my 24th of December went. :| This year, I spent the evening crappily wrapping the presents I bought. Nagmamadali na.

Our yearly Christmas tradition was no more. Since Ate took that graveyard shift job (which she enjoys, btw), Noche Buena was moved 12 hours forward -- Christmas lunch. :) Christmas Eve became like any other evening -- my brother and I asleep in our rooms/surfing the internet, my mom playing PC games.

I guess it's not so bad. I don't really mind new traditions replacing the old ones. Today, we'll be hearing Mass together, not that we don't do it every Sunday... but we don't really do Christmas Masses. This year, my dad and his wife might come over. It's been years since he spent the holidays with us. Then later we might go somewhere to go into hiding from our relatives. ;D Hahaha

I still have 30 minutes left before we have to leave for Church and I have yet to get up from bed. We'll see how this day would turn out.

EDITED at 1:55 PM:
My dad and his wife didn't come over. That woman's got issues. Meh.