These days, I sleep under a flight of stairs. No, I'm not Harry Potter living with the Dursleys. I'm just back staying in my nanay-nanayan's house. We've been staying here since our house got demolished to construct the new one. Nanay is now living in the farm areas, beside our soon-to-be-constructed bungalow. She actually left the family house to her youngest son, but Kuya built his own house and his family just transferred there last week. So it was a win-win deal: we needed a place to stay while our house was in-progress, and Kuya needed someone to look after the house.
I'm no stranger to this house. I was born and raised within its walls, with Mama, Nanay, Tatay, and their children. I lived here 'til I reached third grade. After that, it was just visits during birthdays, summer breaks, holidays, Lenten season, and All Saints day. I can't help but feel a bit sentimental just staying in the same house again. I remember a lot of things in the different rooms of the house: me playing with my Lego blocks in the living room, helping fix the table for dinner, opening the front gate when I hear Kuya's jeepney approaching after a day at the farm, telling Tatay to get out of bead when he was actually dead, eating porridge for merienda, running to the gates when I hear the Lenten procession setting up. Heck, I even got to read my first Playboy and Hustler magazine in this house, straight from Kuya's stash.
I'm not sure what will happen to the house after we move to our new one. I do hope it doesn't get sold or torn down.
Monday, November 3
Sunday, November 2
A Different Christmas Season This Year
I was at the mall two weeks ago, grocery shopping (I do it alone these days, since Mama can't go out). While devouring a plateful of bacon rice, pesto pasta, and grilled chicken at the food court, I noticed that the mall was already playing Christmas songs already. It made me think of how Christmas would be this year, considering recent events.
By December, our house would hopefully be 50% completed, which would mean we'll be having Christmas dinner (and New Year) at my nanay-nanayan's house, where we are currently staying while the house is wrecked. We've already set-up our Christmas tree but it looked puny against the scale of nanay's house. For sure, our holiday season will be spent much much simpler than the past years. This year, instead of being Santa Claus to the whole extended family and friends and officemates, I'll only be shopping presents for a very very select few--my thirteen godchildren specifically. I'll definitely stick to my budget and I'm already considering going to Divisoria or Greenhills instead of Megamall or Glorietta, even just to save a few hundred bucks. Mama would already be on her fourth or fiftch chemotherapy cycle by then too. We'll have to properly schedule our visits to the malls during non-peakhours, so Mama can avoid the germ-riddled crowds. Definitely, no watching Metro Manila Film Festival entries since Mama's immune system shouldn't be in enclosed spaces with other people. Hmm. WIth malling not that much of an option now, I don't really have that much to work on as far as holiday activites go. Hmm.
By December, our house would hopefully be 50% completed, which would mean we'll be having Christmas dinner (and New Year) at my nanay-nanayan's house, where we are currently staying while the house is wrecked. We've already set-up our Christmas tree but it looked puny against the scale of nanay's house. For sure, our holiday season will be spent much much simpler than the past years. This year, instead of being Santa Claus to the whole extended family and friends and officemates, I'll only be shopping presents for a very very select few--my thirteen godchildren specifically. I'll definitely stick to my budget and I'm already considering going to Divisoria or Greenhills instead of Megamall or Glorietta, even just to save a few hundred bucks. Mama would already be on her fourth or fiftch chemotherapy cycle by then too. We'll have to properly schedule our visits to the malls during non-peakhours, so Mama can avoid the germ-riddled crowds. Definitely, no watching Metro Manila Film Festival entries since Mama's immune system shouldn't be in enclosed spaces with other people. Hmm. WIth malling not that much of an option now, I don't really have that much to work on as far as holiday activites go. Hmm.
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