not my usual Christmas

i had noticed some things that were different in the way our family prepared for and celebrated last Christmas:

* i did not buy a Christmas present for myself. ever since i got a job, i would always buy a present for myself on special occasions. i would even buy something for myself just because :P it was my way of pampering myself. last Christmas was different in that i only bought presents for my family, roommates and him. maybe i was not in the mood for any, since i was resigned to the fact that i could not have what i really wanted that time. :(

* i did not make the buko pandan salad for noche buena. it was a time-honored tradition that i was the one who made dessert on special occasions. well, i suppose i kinda did that time, since i prepared the ingredients (and ate a few strips of buko here and there), but it was my brother who mixed everything together. it was his first time to help out with the noche buena preparations, and it was really nice that he is actually volunteering to help. maybe it was time that somebody else carry on the tradition of making the dessert. ;)

* my sister's boyfriend joined us for noche buena. it was the first time that an "extension" joined us for the noche buena. it was unusual, but not really a biggie, though it made me wish i was celebrating noche buena with a specific "extension" at that time. ;)

* i treated my 15-year-old brother to a few hours of DotA. it was our first DotA game together. since it was Christmas, there weren't too many people in the internet cafes, so we were able to use some terminals in the internet shop several blocks away from our house. too bad that we did not know where my two nephews (ages 9 and 11) were playing that time. they left the house an hour earlier than us (it took me long to finish my bath :P ). i had wanted to play DotA with the boys for several months now. but i promised them that i will treat them to a DotA game or two if they make it to their class' top 10. by the way, my bro beat me in the first game, as i didn't know how to play Tiny. but i beat him in the next 2 games after that. ;)

* i brought home my ps2 karaoke revolution, and it was the first time my siblings played with it. it was surprising that they enjoyed it more than my ps2 dance dance revolution games. my brother and nephews were even singing the oldies like Jackson 5's ABC. :O

* i wasn't outside the house at the stroke of midnight on new year's day. i guess it was plain laziness on my part. i didn't want anything to do with firecrackers anyway, and the noise was making my ears hurt.

* most of my relatives didn't visit us on new year's day, as they used to do. i had hoped they would visit because i miss my neice/godchild. i learned that she and her mother were sick. also, one of my favorite cousins got married last year and was in australia with her husband, so she wasn't able to come. even my grandmother (my last surviving grandparent) wasn't able to visit. :(

i wonder if these things are signs of what is to come. things will inevitably change: my siblings and i will hopefully get married, have our own families, grow old. but i hope we will still celebrate special occasions, like Christmas, together as a family.