Christmas past

It's the dreaded Monday after the Christmas holidays where some of us not so privilege souls have to drag their lazy selves to slog at work and compensate for the deficit in our bank account due to the season of giving. I nearly fell off my chair when I checked my bank balance this morning. It felt like someone had robbed my bank. or either someone hacked into my account and siphon my lifetime savings in just a span of a week. It seems then I will have to usher in New Year pauperized.

During the holidays, I over binged on the Turkey. guzzle enough liquids for my livers and/or kidneys to hate me. Hibernated like a Polar. Indulged in a buffet of heavenly desserts. suffered bruises courtesy of rowdy snogging Crowds. and gratified in the glory of Christmas Shindig. This year wasn't much about the presents. nor did I get my Tiffany's & Co. or rather the loveliest gifts were not placed under the Christmas tree. They arrived by air and was stuff in my postbox. The postmen in my country seriously need a lesson or two from Santa in delievering Christmas presents with style. They come in their noisy motorbike, honk incessantly at your front gate while you fumble to the gates only to be greeted by a rude grouchy stare and a loud demand for you to sign off their delivery manifest sheet quickly. It must be a crime to be popular and to be receiving gifts for Christmas here.

Thankfully over the years, I had the joy and blessings to be in the company of great peeps to celebrate this holiday season with. In 2005, I had my first English Christmas, the whole she-bang from Cranberry sauce to Christmas Turkey to Salmon to 8 inches of snow to boxing day. The whole fiesta. In 2007, I was most fortunate to have a Down Under Yuletide. In 2008, I flew back from England just to be able to do the countdown in a nick of time back home. This year, I feel that I needed a more chillaxing one. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I didn't expect another round of smashing Celebration but rather, I felt expectations are what ultimately killed the celebrations. when you start expecting Christmas to be all glitzy and gold, you place an unfair burden on yourselves and others to make it happen. and as greed is a human flaw, you eventually expect so much that eventually even the best Christmas would feel like a failed celebration in your eyes.

So when it comes to the Best Christmas, the Gold standards of Christmas, I don't believe I really have one. It could do without the Christmas tree or the 8 inches of snow. It could do without the Turkey and the free flow of champagne. it could also do without the presents underneath the tree. it could have a million without(s), but if it has that one thing, that one-liner that makes that christmas uniquely Christmas for that year, I am quick to cheer on it and ride a sleigh with you.

I hope all of you had your own wonderful Christmas time. Coming up next - New Year's celebration. Though I did say to celebrate it with a big bang, let's just hope y'all do not come back from the New Year's holiday hanging on drips or with a broken nose. A hang over is excusable. Till then, run along now and drown in your Monday blues...

All I want for Christmas is

Ho Ho Ho

The Christmas when you were mine

Please take down the mistletoe

I woke up this morning and felt a twang in my mood. Gosh, must have gotten down the wrong side of the bed. It could be the festive seasons and the humming of christmas aria every nook and cranny that is bitting in me a little. Everything I want is so far away. Reminds me of how lonely this Christmas is going to get for some of us. Not some of us. Just us. You and me. You, who will buy another sweater for your mother this year. You who brace the winter chills with me last christmas. I am feeling nostalgic. a little lonely inside. I know this should not be a lonely time. I am reminded of that Christmas when you were mine.

Brown packages tied up with strings

Snowflakes on windows and christmas is coming,

Bright colour lights and misletoe kissing,

brown paper packages tied up with strings,

these are a few of my favorite things.

When someone leaves, when the wound stings,

when I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember my favorite things,

and then I don't feel so bad.

 

Yuletide is just around the corner,

friends all over the world is sending me gifts

just receiving their heartfelt wishes make my heart warmer,

opening those presents see my spirit lifts.

 

Look what came by the mail for me today

Brown package tied up with strings

with brown tape plastered in a messy way

 

 a cheque that makes my bank account sings

a love letter that melts my heart

 

and a sanctuary spa from my sweetheart

 

Christmas came early all thanks to Plan Bee

The Gift

Last year, I wanted a Magical Christmas. As I spent the countdown to Christmas in London, where the weather was turning to a freezing temperature and the days were shorter, my heart was glowing with the feeling of warmth and giddiness. There was a huge Christmas Tree that benefits Trafalgar Sqaure every Christmas as a gift from Norway, Regent Street and Oxford Street was literally a flooded with participants of the national sport during this season, a.k.a.Shopping, and what is Christmas without the stunning twinkling myriad of lights that adorn the Streets of London, painting London town with a vibrancy of light and colour during the bleak winter.

Christmas is a time of beauty from the inside out. For a brief period, we seem to give ourselves permission to let go of all the little stressors that constraint us, and we open our hearts to love, to giving and receiving. It is a time when hearts are filled with joy, and minds are filled with caring thoughts much more than at any other time. It is a time we regale in our childhood dreams and believe that Santa comes riding in his sleigh drawn by reindeers from Lapland with presents for the children who have been so good for the year. I think Santa is a desolated man who often overstuff himself with leftover turkeys and rapsberrys sauce from Christmasses before, growing so fat, that every year when he makes his Seasonal round to deliver presents, he gets stuck in Chimneys. Or rather, no one wrote to Santa to inform him that frontdoors were invented to welcome people into your house. Then again, not everyone welcomes santa into their house. Especially if you have been a bad kid.

I wonder if Santa really hears me and know that I have been real good this year. If Santa needed a model child, I would have been that child. I pledge my Organs to the needy (e.g.gave my kidney to Royal Mail), Donated to the needy (e.g.made a small contribution to my Disneyland Fund) and shared my love with the needy (e.g. generously bought myself a pair of shoes every month). This Christmas, I do not want Prada, I do not want Goldiva, nor do I want a spanking holiday. I know what exactly I want this year, Santa. Send me someone to love in a big red bow. That special someone who will stand under the misletoe and snog me crazy. Just kidding. Send me a cause to give. Give me a reason to believe that with all the schmaltzy Christmas specials on, Christmas isn't just about the frantic tearing a multi-coloured expensive wrappers just to discover we have gotten what we asked for this year. Rather I want to give away a gift from my heart, a little gift that is called Forgiveness.

To me, Christmas is a time for giving, a season to share and a reason to gather with family and friends to drink free champagne celebrate the birth of Christ. And even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, odds are that someone you love does. Bear with me while I put on my holy cloak and preach. Christmas is the greatest celebration of the year because everything is on sale, the message of Christmas is all encompassing. It's the season of giving because God on the first day, gave His only Son, Christ to us, as our saviour. Giving, keep in mind, is love in action. Christmas however, represents giving the infinite. To put others before us and to give something that is beyond our mind to grasp that our earthly nature can never comprehend or understand.

This gift of Forgiveness will not burn a hole in my pocket but rather something money cannot buy. Coming from the bottomest sincerest pit of my heart, I want my gift to be felt. This Christmas, I am giving away a fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. I think no matter how far off the pedestal the character fell, it always deserve a 2nd chance. I am opening my heart to love, opening my eyes to the colours and opening my arms to forgive.

This year, is there someone you would very much like to say, I forgive you? Forgiveness is a funny thing, it cools the sting and warms the heart.