CHRISTMAS 2020 was probably the weirdest in all our years on this good earth. Take a bow, Covid-19.
I, for one, stayed away from Big Sis and her family in the south because she and her husband are seniors. We belong to different bubbles, mine particularly being Quezon City, the main Covid-19 hotspot in the country due to the sheer size of the city and its dense population. So I didn’t want to unwittingly bring in the Covid cooties to their home.
Similarly, they have househelp coming in and out of their house from god knows where, and my eldest niece goes to her office regularly, so I wouldn’t know if they, in turn, had picked up any elements of the virus from their sojourns outside. With my asthma having flared up again this chilly and rainy season, I didn’t want to take any chances with my health. (As you know, I’ve rarely strayed away from my apartment, unless I have an urgent errand or have to go on quick food-buying trips to the wet market.)
I prepared the typical media noche fare in my own tiny dining area, just for myself. All I needed was to tick off the boxes for the traditional family menu, even if we weren’t going to be together for Christmas—thick hot chocolate stirred swiftly in the batirol, queso de bola-topped ensaimada (still slightly shocked that Mary Grace’s buns have become more pricey than Cunanans!), chicken galantina (stuffed chicken steamed or poached and served cold, not to be confused with a chicken relleno, which is roasted), and a baked cheesy lasagna gifted by a friend.
A few days before Christmas Eve, I had already sent over my presents for the family in the south through my youngest niece. I didn’t want to be remiss in my auntie or ninang duties, as I try to follow in my own Ninang Sally’s footsteps, who never ever failed to send a me Christmas present even when I had already graduated from college and had started working. Ninang Sally only stopped sending me gifts when I started giving her holiday presents, which probably made her realize that her godmotherly duties to me had finally come to an end as I tried to make my own way in the big bad world.
So on Christmas Eve, the family got together to eat media noche, albeit online, through the wonders of technology. Aside from me, a niece who works in Abu Dhabi, the daughter of my late brother, had joined us also for the online reunion.
All I can say is that it was strange, getting together like that. We started on Webex (because Zoom has a time limit for meetings) and I couldn’t get the sound to come out on my bluetooth speaker even if the blasted thing was already connected to my iPad. The volume from my iPad and on my mobile phone, to which I had switched over, was just too soft and weak.
Big Sis and family were blurry as the video often lagged, and apparently I said “Can you hear me?” or “Can you see me?” so many times that I ended up even annoying myself. So we then switched to Facebook Messenger, which was more stable but still not good enough to give us clear video and sound. By the time we got that to work, everyone was too busy eating. There was no excited chattering among us, as one would normally expect for people who had not seen each other for the longest time.
The online conversation was mostly between me and my niece abroad, who had to sometimes disappear from view, being on the constant lookout for her boss who might find out she was on a video chat. Oddly enough, even if she was on the other side of the world, our audiovisual connection to her was much clearer compared to the connection between my home and those who lived in the south.
Of course, if Mama and Papa were alive today, they would probably be rolling their eyes at these tech connection problems. After all, to them Christmas 2020 would not have been all that stressful, having spent bleaker and rougher holidays during World War II and the Japanese Occupation, when they didn’t know if they would face the bayonet the next day for the slightest misstep, like forgetting to bow to the Japanese soldiers along the road.
So putting that into perspective, I guess that, yes, it wasn’t as bad as we really thought it would be. And there is so much more to look forward to now in 2021, notwithstanding disappointments and dreary politicking all over the country. The Covid vaccine will finally become available, albeit much delayed in our shores due to some effed-up bureaucratic mess. But we will get our hands on it somehow, and that will temper the pandemic. The economy will further reopen while we finally get our lives back on track.
It won’t probably be back to pre-pandemic normal as we would like it to be, but enough to regain our sanity, get back to the real work that has been amiss, and reunite with families and friends. What I’ve missed most of all, beyond the four-hour lunches with friends, breathing in the polluted-free air in a beach somewhere, and just being able to leave the house at a drop of a hat, are the hugs and kisses, as well as the incessant kulitan among family and friends. Unsocially distanced human contact and affection is a great goal for all of us for 2021.
Cheers to the New Year, folks. Wishing you all love, peace, and good health.