Christmas 2019

It’s Christmas 2019. Late afternoon with an early supper ready to be served. But first it is time for the gift openings. Yang, since we are in her apartment, sits by the little plastic tree and picks a present. “Elisa..saaa” she says and hands one to Elisa. “Lydia..aaaaaah” she says and I ask her to wait. I want to enjoy this. See the gifts opened one by one. Elisa opens her gift. A bag. Gifts are not so much about the gifts anymore — we have everything we want — they are about the traditions that carry of anticipation, caring, and love. The ayi comes with a large plastic bag to collect the wrapping paper. Another tradition I got from my dad. Maybe not the best one. I don’t even need to ask the ayi to bring the bag. She just knows from years of Christmas.

We get through the gifts. I bought one “big” gift for the kids to share, a nintendo switch and it’s been a big hit. Sabrina’s gifts were the most thoughtful except for maybe Lydia’s who gave us celery and a sketch of our expected reactions to the gift. Food was next and I made lasagna, another tradition. The devil eggs, chips and dip, were all consumed greedily.

For our Christmas movie we watched the Godfather 2. It’s hard for me to focus on a movie at these events — my father’s anxiousness is another passed down tradition. I could enjoy scenes and pass along some trivia since I just listed to a podcast about the movie.

When the movie ended, I gathered my things and Sabrina, our dog Kobe, and I went home.