A Christmas Wish
8 o’clock.
The cool night air embraced me as I stepped up to the large double doors with my family.
As we entered the foyer, the first thing that greeted us was the delicious smell of an approaching feast. Crispy lechon and fried chicken. Barbecue and pasta. Ham and all sorts of cheese. Lights from overhead glittered and shone. They seemed to me like the stars leading the three wise men on that Holy night we were celebrating. Aunts and uncles were the sources of all the excited chatter filling the halls.
I kissed my grandmother and grandfather’s cheeks in greeting, wondering why the latter couldn’t talk to me. He always sat in a chair as if asleep, his fist frozen in the air as if he were clutching a ping-pong ball within.
10 o’clock.
The night was spent playing with Barbie dolls, singing along to Christmas carols on the large TV, and playing games with confusing instructions. We screamed when mischievous players cheated and laughed when clumsy ones lost miserably. Our stomachs hurt from our endless mirth.
While we children played, adults sat around the table as tall as I was. I would occasionally join my mother and ask for some grapes, and every time I heard their grown-up conversation I was more confused than before. I no longer attempted to try and understand the foreign subjects of their concern.
Midnight.
We counted the seconds until this moment. For a second, all was still.
Then everyone erupted into cheers and embraced one another. I twirled around in my pretty red dress, handed carefully ribboned gifts to my relatives, and received many in return.
I then spotted my grandfather across the dining room. He had a serene look on his face. I wondered if he could hear us — if he was joining in our rapturous joy. I wished he would say something. Anything. The house was bright, filled with cheerful scenes, decked from the ceiling to the floor with bells and wreaths and pretty little figurines.
I wished I could ask him if he found them beautiful as I did. I wished he could open his eyes and reveal what lay within — whether it was his jubilation or his woe.
Towers of gifts, toys, clothes — all of them I have encountered through the years. Yet my young heart always yearned for nothing more than its one Christmas wish.
Vocabulary:
Lechon — a whole roasted pig dish that is typically eaten during festivals, birthdays, Christmas get-togethers, and more, in the Philippines.
