It's Christmas Time

It's the time of year again..... of resolutions, year-end parties, carols, turkeys, presents, Christmas trees and tinsels, and family gatherings. A most wondrous time of goodwill, mushy wishes, kisses, hugs and long year-end holidays. How can I ever get enough of such feelings of love, festivities and smacking good time, albeit deemed a trifle commercialized and Mickey Mouse-influenced.

I'm so glad that we took the step of celebrating Christmas more than ten years ago. I can still remember the time we had our first turkey in Desa Pandan. Nothing fancy - just the bird, sparkling juice, warm buns and mushroom soup. But what a memorable feast it was! I was absolutely enthralled by the mere size of the gigantic "chicken". It looked different, it tasted different, but a chicken nevertheless ...a very expensive chicken. The kids were still young then so we had quite a struggle trying to finish off the bird. The act of putting out the cutlery, laying the table and putting on the Christmas songs for ambience was remarkable and totally heartwarming. I remembered we had to invite mum-in-law, Mike and his kids over to help us to demolish it. Even then with the additional mouths, we had quite a fair bit of leftovers for Christmas morning.

Things sort of moved on to the next level since then. It is now a family affair and has been embraced into the annals of must-have family get-togethers. The Christmas eve menu has evolved into a lavish spread of east and west and somewhere in between. The turkey's still there (heck, it's Christmas after all and woe betide a Christmas dinner without the turkey - absolutely no compromise on this). The tree and presents are still in the package. The only difference is that the original batch of kids are now taller (except the 2 small ones), the sparkling juices have mellowed to something stronger, there are more cooks contributing to the gourmet potluck , Christmas carols are sung with gruffer karaoke-trained voices and the family's coming in more than 1 car. Other than this, nothing has changed. The merriment and camaraderie of the Christmas spirit continues to withstand time and age and hopefully for many years to come.

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year! XXXOOO