Patrick Tan

Less than 4 hours 'til Christmas. Today we had a family reunion at home with my lolo's children and grandchildren. Evening before that I asked my mom not to wake me up because I wanted to rest. Somehow I wasn't too excited about the family reunion. Well, for one the cousins not that close already. We used to be close when we where kids, back when the families lived close to each other and we celebrate Christmas in Avenida. Today, we live far from each other, as north as Novaliches, as south as Cavite, as far as Singapore and Dubai. My grandfather is immobile.

Somehow the patriarch that galvanized the families is not so strong. They began to arrive one by one. Time has truly flown, we had grown some age. My cousins showed remarkable change physically. We have all grown up. The reunion was ok, we only had a simple feast, just like before. We had our computer set up so that my tito's family in Singapore can chat with us here. We had our annual group picture with my grandfather. Late afternoon they began to leave one by one. Spent the day watching movies, chatting and just chillin. Tomorrow's still Sunday, we have Sunday Service, December 25, which I remarked is Jesus' birthday so the more we shouldn't be absent.

Yesterday, was December 23, my dad's aunt's birthday. It was an annual thing, we visit them in Aranque. I do not like it. Actually I didn't plan to go. Because there's so much familial and status division among the two matriarchs, them being pure Chinese and us, being half-Chinese. I don't want to belong to any of it. It's ridiculous. I don't wanna go through details, I don't wanna be such a pessimist now, it's Christmas.