Are You Counting?

So this is the official Christmas countdown here in our country as I write this post. By the time  I’m done with this post,  those minutes and seconds have already moved.

68

DAYS

04

HOURS

50

MINUTES

22

SECONDS

It used to be that I start my countdown as soon as the BER months begin. This pandemic changed everything. It used to be that I was always excited to play Christmas songs and listen to those lovely melodies of old. By this time around in the previous years, I have already done my purchase of Christmas gifts to family members. I can’t think of items that would be easier to buy online since I have no intention of going to the malls and risking myself with Covid 19.

The truth is I am not really enthusiastic to do my own Christmas countdown except today for the sake of this post. I am not even thinking of bringing out the Christmas decor to choose which to use when December comes. Another effect of Covid 19. One thing that it brought me though is that I am able to attend masses online every day because almost all churches here go live from 6am until around 9pm. I could choose which mass to attend.

The Department of Health previously said that they have no intention of zeroing out those who were found positive of the virus. To each his own? We have reached more than 350,000 cases to date. They have acquired loans by the billions but until now, no concrete plans are in place. Where did the money go? They even changed the dates of our social security pension maybe without studying the repercussions of it. Mine was late for almost a month and so were the rest of the pensioners’s. Kawawa yung mga umaasa sa pension nila para bumili ng basic necessities at gamot.

This pandemic is surely getting to the nerves of everyone. How are you coping with it?

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Unfulfilled Promises

Hmm….it seems I could no longer duplicate the things I did back in 2011 when I joined WordPress’ Post A Day Challenge and I did it…..successfully.

Here I am again promising myself to post daily. I wish I could do it again.

Haha, I’ve been waiting for today and here it comes finally and I was not disappointed, I heard Jose Mari Chan belting out  A Perfect Christmas from a friend’s wall on Facebook.  I have always told you in my previous Christmas posts over the years that we have the longest celebration of the season. It might be different this year because of Covid-19, so many people are left jobless but we could still celebrate without much fanfare, right? The simpler,  the better. I don’t wish for expensive gifts this year but I wish for the presence of my family including Nate of course.

I made this out of the photo I took yesterday at the garden. It’s my blooming Bleeding Heart.

Despite this pandemic, we still have something to look forward to…..Christmas!

 

 

 

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Eight Days To Go

Nah, I am not counting the days till  Christmas, I am counting the days till September 1. And that’s eight days till September 1. Curious? I bet.

Our famous singer/composer. Jose Mari Chan would say, “I’m coming, I’m coming”. He is the first voice you’ll hear come September 1 because  music airlanes  somehow conspire to play his songs by then.  Jose Mari Chan is one of the famous faces of Christmas. Among his popular songs which they usually play on radios are Christmas in our Hearts and A Perfect Christmas.

Yes, the start of the BER month is coming. It’s the beginning of Christmas celebration here in the Philippines. Let’s forget Covid for a while.

Remembering those days in grade school.  At the start of December (we had Christmas break then), we would decorate some small tree trunks without the leaves and are usually painted white by our teacher. Back then, Christmas trees as we know now were practically unheard of in our school in  the barangay. Garlands would be crepe papers of red and green (those are the Christmas colors we knew then), stars that  we hung on the tree are from the silky inner wrappings of cigarettes cut into small stars with  ball thread. Art papers in different colors are also used for decors. You can make them into poinsettia flowers, ribbons, wreaths and what have you. Small boxes are wrapped to place on the tree branches while some bigger but empty ones are placed under the tree.

culled from the net just to show you how it was done.

Of course we had exchange gifts too at the last day before Christmas break. We had singing and dancing and sometimes declamation contests too. Usual gifts we received during those times were a pair of  face towel and bath soap, pencils, candies, toothbrush paired with a little box of toothpaste, and small things that a child of 7 to 10 would appreciate. Our teacher would bring a “bilao of bibingka” which we usually share after the program.

Those were the days. A simple way of celebrating Christmas but they were fun days too.

 

 

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