Is it Christmas already?

   I couldn't believe it would be Christmas in three weeks! Has it really been almost a year already? Has one year really come and now, is it almost gone already?
  Christmas is just around the bend and way before the incredible traffic and the long queues at the cashier zap off the fun of buying for those on your Christmas list, beat the rush and start now. Well, you should have started months ago. But it is easier said than done. With all the trauma and the political controversies that our country has been subjected to, the value of peso has further weakened and, along with it, the desire to start the inevitable Christmas shopping.

  Christmas is, for me, the nicest time of year. I like how everything seems brighter, literally and figuratively speaking, and how everyone acts kind. Amid the hustle and bustle of preparing for the usual rituals, it never ceases to amaze me how this one season can heal and bring people together.

  It has been our tradition to put up our Christmas tree as early as the second week of September. Our house is almost filled with Christmas decors and you can  already see colorful wrappers and ribbons in our den and bedroom. I love wrapping gifts. More like tossing them in pretty bags, actually, like a mad woman with too many ribbons and too little time. I am tempted to do a little something extra special with the packaging, which is always the case, I look at the many naked ones staring at me, patiently waiting for their turn, and I am jotted back to my practical senses. My husband has been very tolerant of the festive mess I make and the zombie-like hours I keep.

  Meanwhile, harassed and pressed for time as I am, I am just...happy, in a shameless kind of joy. Despite the dizzying list of things to do and the whirl of get-together, the season never fails to bring me joy. There is no house mess quite as pleasant as the one Christmas ushers in, days are indeed merry and bright amid straps of ribbon and rolls of wrapping paper here and there.

  With all the tragic stories of houses burning down together from overheating Christmas lights, we thought it was time we kept things simple- just touches of Christmas cheer as opposed to glittery, shimmery Christmas everything everywhere. We used most of the old decor we had accumulated through the years. 

  This year, I was actually way behind my Christmas timetable. Way behind. By this time last year, I had already started delivering Christmas presents. I don't know why the spirit of Christmas came a bit too late this year, for me, at least. I have much Christmas shopping to do still. I'd better get started. I think I will let a few things slide. I will make it on time somehow, it's just going to be a mad rush but I'll get there.

  Christmas maybe the most expensive time of the year, with all the presents and celebrations that come with the season. It is the time to give back. A time to be grateful to the people you may not always see and be in touch with as often as you like. And at the core of this season really are friendships and relationships we nurture.