My Quiet Christmas

My external hard disk has not been repaired yet. Hence, do bear with me. The photos aren’t quite ready yet.
But, a merry Christmas to you!
I don’t celebrate Christmas the way Christians do but I’ve grown up with a Catholic best pal so we used to hang out in her house on Christmas Eve, downing glasses of Blue Nun and feeling utterly sophisticated and out-of-this-world. We’d chat and think of the future and wonder what we’ll be doing. Would we all end up doing what we want? She wanted to study Eng Lit, in the end she ended up doing Law and refusing to practise law. Lecturing is a lot more calming for her.
Christmas Day was strictly for her and her family as they’d go to church, invite a bunch of church friends over and have open house the whole day.
I’ve never much liked boisterous parties anyway (as you can see from my growing up years) so Christmas, like New Year, is often spent at home. I’m rather boring that way but I’d rather be honest and boring than get my eardrums split with loud music or liver agitated with hard liquor at the hot spots in town. Anyway, I prefer not having a splitting headache the day after.
I don’t like doing things for the sake of doing them. I like doing them because I want to. Petulant as it sounds, it’s true.
So having said that, I enjoyed a quiet Christmas Eve at home, going through some old recipe books, watching a slew of Xmassy cooking shows on AFC. When Vern came by with some tiramisu, we gobbled that down with Chinese tea and then carted our chairs into the garden for a bit of star-spotting. I thought we were looking at The Big Dipper, Vern thought it was more of The Orion.
Christmas Day was a totally relaxing day too. Not much happening as I refused to go near the laptop. I know the moment I switch it on, I get immersed. So I did my leisurely stuff while prepping my fruit salad for a family potluck dinner. (Totally simple salad you can make with success: open up a tin of lychee, a tin of peaches, a tin of nata de coco. Drain completely their sweet juices. Mix with a handful of raisins. Stir in half a cup of mayo and half a cup of evaporated milk. Chill for an hour before serving. Delightful!)
The thing about the year end is always very quiet and introspective, at least for me. I tend to journal more, recording my experiences and feelings. I often get pensive and look back at the year with wonder and amazement as again, it has flown by.
And yes, I will be studiously doing my yearly wishes or resolutions next week despite most skeptics saying it never lasts anyway. Last or not, for me it’s a new beginning and always, always a fresh hope that I can be better!
Thanks to Vern, we watched The Bucket List this afternoon while munching on her mom’s freshly baked chewy, addictive cookies.
It was a hilarious yet touching movie. A bucket list is a list of things you wish to do or achieve before you kick the bucket. It’s supposed to make you reflect and appreciate your life, and stop putting things on hold because of the kids, the dog, the circumstances, the job etc.
So yeah, now my bucket list includes “To finish watching all the movies that Vern recommends or has passed the DVD to me”.
Do you have a bucket list? What’s on it, if you care to share?
I didn’t know it was called a bucket list but I’ve been making up this kind of list for a while now. My list changes ever so often because when one is immature, lots of weird stuff ends up on the list. Now I know better!