90 days till Christmas!

Just Googled "How many days till Christmas" and OMG 90 days left!!

Haven't got a clue what to get for who!!

I love Christmas. 

I really really really do!

I get to see most of my family then and spend the day just insulting each other, eating, opening presents, talking, laughing.. and then the cousins start drinking and all hell breaks loose.

Christmas's as a child was so amazing!  Everyone would travel back to JB and on Christmas eve we would all be at Grandma's for dinner.. 

It was such a kanchiong time where we would be waiting for cars to arrive.. It was like what time now? why they not yet reach? and this was back in the day where there were no mobile phones!!! up down up down.. why still not here yet????

30 seconds later *pin pin pinnnnnnnnnnnnnnn* 

YAY!!! WAIT, WHO IS THAT? 

OH UNCLE DUNCAN!!!!  UNCLE KEN!!! AUNTY RENE!!!

* runs outside to help bring in presents.. who cares about cousins when there are important parcels to be brought in*

I remember Aunty Rene, Grandma and all the other mum's preparing our Christmas eve feast.. Makan table also not enough space I tell you.... Then Uncle Ken would bring in the ham! He still does!

Cousins would sit outside on the marble table and literally protect our chicken skin because our Eldest cousin Gary might just show up and steal it off our plates!

He tells us it is his right to all the chicken skin because he's the Eldest. really big bully.

We kena before one year, so thankfully we got smarter the year after and stopped keeping the chicken skin for last.. gobble it up the minute you get your makan if not.. confirm rugi

Have you realized that it takes an entire day to prepare a Christmas eve dinner for your family but everyone is done and fed in half an hour... 

Then again, how to makan slowly, we're kids, we've got tons of stuff to do!

After makan was the trying to guess what presents we got that were sitting under the tree... never have I successfully guessed mine..

Play play play play play.. then it was "nap" time before Midnight Mass... 

Seriously, how do adults expect kids to nap when all their cousins are about? 

Get up and get ready for mass, fall asleep halfway through mass, go home, wake up really early the next morning, race over to Grandma's and it was breakfast before opening presents.. gah another thing that annoyed me.. 

My presents are there!! I need to eat first? WHY!!!! 

I don't remember who it was but an adult told me 

"If you don't eat, you won't have energy to open your presents"

stupidly believed them

Grandma use to sit in her chair and watch all her grandchildren opening their presents with a smile on her face..  The highlight of her Christmas was seeing us rip paper barbarically.

Maria was THE MOST ANNOYING present opener ever.. the rest of us would be ripping off the wrapping paper and by the time we were done, she was probably on her second present. She does this every single year to annoy us to no end.. She picks out each and every tape that is on the present!! OMG FASTER CAN?

Then an adult would come with a black bin bag.. for us to dump all the wrapping papers in them.. 

There was one year that Uncle Ken wrapped our gifts in those Foil wrappers.. he said it would take us longer to open it.. I lost patience with it at one point!!

One time mum and dad didn't know what to get everyone, so all cousins got a box of chocolates! No one complained! 

WIN.

Christmas was all about family, food, presents and laughter.

Then life happened.

After a while, the hassle of traveling back to JB became more obvious.. and when Grandma wasn't well, that was when all the Christmas's I knew as a child, visually stopped.

Everyone would be in their own houses, doing their own thing.

I began to hate Christmas.

It was like 

Christmas eve: Makan, go to church, come back, sleep.

Christmas: wake up, breakfast, open presents. 

END OF CHRISTMAS.

Then I had kids.

I wanted them to have the Christmas feel that I had when I was a kid, but that would still be somewhat impossible as they don't have as many cousins as I did.

About 2-3 years back, people just started showing up at my Dad's place.. seriously.. one by one they would pop in and at one point the house was so full of people it was a little hard to move!

But that was the year The Eldest had a tiny glimpse to what Christmas was suppose to feel like.

Family, Food and Laughter.

Last year, it was the first time The Brother in law celebrated Christmas with us...

This was what the tree looked like:

 I still don't get how we had just one additional person but the presents were overflowing.

Usually, when people are planning on coming over, it would be around noon, but last year, just when we all decided to go for a nap.. everyone started showing up.. at 2pm.. Christmas came a little later... but lasted the whole night too...

I'm beginning to wonder, will there ever be a Christmas where all my uncles, aunts and cousins are together at the same place once again?

I doubt it but if there really is such a thing as a Christmas miracle.. I hope it happens to my family soon.