Happy New Year once again guys!

How was your New Year?  Surely, everyone now is so busy as the holiday vacation abruptly comes to an end and our desks are already waiting for us to work our ass out and replenish are busted wallets and soaring credit card dues.

Going back, how was your New Year?  Complete fingers eh?

Permit me to have some story-telling to shake off what I felt was a little bad luck that was showered on me last New Year’s Eve.  Nah, not really; just some rant.

New Year’s Eve is one of the most special days of the year if not the most bloody day of the year for those who are hard-headed, trying to light a fire cracker on the left hand and then throw the match stick on from right hand.  Boom!  Crazy.

Family members are gathered to reminisce the year that is coming to a close and await with joy, hope and prayers the new year.  It is the presence of one another, of the whole family that makes this night very meaningful, colorful and special.

All of us were busy bodies, preparing everything for New Year’s eve, and surely same with you on your respective homes.  Food, plates, decors, and all; typical on a Filipino household and table.

But lo’ and behold, some people knocked on our door and told us they are relatives; six of them.  No text messages, no calls, no whatsoever.  They just arrived like a tsunami (well, good thing tsunami has an alarm system), a whole family: from grandpas and grandmas to little children.  Yeah, yeah…hospitality, served them everything, service that could rival that of Dubai’s 7-star hotel.  Actually, I haven’t seen them all my life of my entire life…only that night.  Life is full of surprises, even on New Year’s eve.

The conversation and our enthusiasm among my immediate family waned down as midnight was already approaching, firecrackers signaling that New Year is only a couple of minutes away, and they are still there at our home, with another four of them arriving to join the whole gang; siphoning every energy and time that our family had just to serve them with everything we have.  And take note, they wanted just “to be served” like old gluttonous Romans.

Were they relatives?  I tried to look at our family tree and it revealed something:  well, if our family tree is growing as a mango tree on a farm, they are coming from a mahogany tree right from the Mountains of Sierra Madre.  In short, as distant as Andromeda.

And the torment has not yet ended as one by one these people interviewed me like a true Gestapo, asking my full name, my parents, siblings, my work, how much is my salary, short of asking me how long is my large and small intestine combined and that thing bulging right below my belt.

To cut the story short:  they went home past 12 midnight on January 1, 2010, got fed and served well by all of us who were on our goody-goody mood.  And we as a family never felt that it was already New Year as we were all so damn tired.  Many of us already fell asleep into awkward positions not having the traditional family gathering of having a meal together and in “private”.

There is no big deal with relatives or visitors, so long as they tell the host at least they are coming over; and they are also sensitive enough especially on this kind of occasion that a family needs also its time, space and privacy to celebrate.

Ah, that was how  I and my family spent our New Year with some people who just came in like a wind and vanished as soon as we were all like dead meat.  My family and I are still wishing to have another New Year’s Eve one of these days…maybe on a hotel or rented yacht floating on Manila Bay this time around..

So, how about you, how was your New Year celebration?  Nothing but good luck to all of you for 2010!

Image from Savage Chickens

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