Christmas away from home

My mood was terrible starting from the days leading up to Christmas and I was turning into the Christmas Grinch. In fact,this Grinch stayed till Boxing Day when Christmas was over.

As a Christian, Christmas is of course about celebrating the birth of Jesus, thanking God for sending His only Son to earth for us. That is the spiritual part.

As a Singaporean, Christmas is about running around madly in different malls at the last minute, re-checking my shopping list and keeping fingers crossed that the present will not be going onto that person's re-gifting list. That is the GDP contribution part.

As me, Christmas is spent in sunny island Singapore, having Christmas dinner on Christmas Day at this tucked away place called Cooling Close. That is the social part.

For this year, of course the spiritual part of Christmas remains unchanged and I am more than happy not to be contributing to GDP growth but I was missing the social part so much more than I thought I would!

Nearing to Christmas, I was checking my Facebook account less frequently and I told myself that I will not check Facebook at all on Christmas Day! I don't want to know about where my friends are enjoying themselves, who is getting what "wow" presents or looking at pictures of yummalicious food that is so far away from me.

These actions are not from feelings of jealousy or envy but rather homesick-ness. I could now understand why people are willing to brave all the travel chaos, travelling across continents and time zones just to be with family and friends during the festive season.

On Whatsapp with J who is also away from home for the first year, I agreed with her that we had taken the annual Christmas dinner for granted without realising it till now. From Cooling Close, friends wanted to call me on Viber or webcam but I said no. It was too sad to see them so close yet so far.

I have a friend R who have been bringing me into her lectures, karaoke sessions, etc via webcam. She wanted to have me join her Christmas party too but I also said no.

Yes, I know I don't have to make myself feel so miserable and that I have the hubby here but it is just not the same when a tradition is broken. I know the hubby misses being there at his family's Christmas dinner too.

But the good news is, I have decided to make New Year's Day better by going out on New Year's Eve to have dinner and counting down to a great 2011.