A Christmas Day Well Spent?

I had an awful nightmare on the night of Christmas Eve. I dreamt that I was at a resort with swimming pools that has sharks inside & I desperately tried to escape. Then I dreamt that I got mugged & kidnapped by a mafia gang & it so happened that one of them was my secondary school good friend David Tng whom I have been hoping to meet him somewhere or anywhere in Singapore, so that we could regain contact. Thereafter, my dream continued with another scary happening which I can’t recall already. All these scary happenings resulted in me waking up with my underwear & shorts slightly wet from sweat! Wah! I seldom dream until sweat this much… & the worse consequence is that I woke up at 12pm, missing both Christmas church services!

Initially, I felt quite down, wondering if this would be how I would be spending my Christmas Day this year. The only highlight that I could think of was going to a Christmas potluck gathering at my Aunty Margaret’s house later in the evening. Well, it’s still something to look forward to, especially the vast table-full of Christmas food. This meant especially a lot to me, when my daily breakfast consists primarily of either whole grain bread with fillings, or instant noodles with ingredients. Yet, knowing myself to be occasionally thrill-seeking, I wondered if this event would be interesting enough to be considered something meaningful that I did to spend my Christmas Day this year. Doubts assailed, as I tried to shake this downcast feeling out of my mind, even though it did bug me, a few times throughout the afternoon.

It was some hours later that I realized that I should learn to look beyond my emotions. Christmas isn’t solely a time for good, fun & exciting happenings. There are many who are doing guard duty in Army camps, working at retail outlets all around the entertainment-crazed Singapore, some who may be unwell & not able to go out to celebrate, taxi drivers having less sleep & less family time while working overtime during this festive season, disabled or paralyzed people, as well as those who may be spending this day alone, without the company of their friends or relatives today.

With these thoughts amidst in my mind, I started to feel blessed & thankful. At least, I would be blessed with a whole table spread of delicious Christmas food that far surpassed my daily meal varieties! And like I said earlier, that meant something to me already. Plus, at least I had the liberty to attend gatherings & mingle with my relatives! I definitely feel more at ease being around my own relatives, as compared to the whole HDB flat full of strangers at Rebecca’s relatives gathering the night before… but still, at least I wasn’t alone. And that also meant A LOT to me.

It was sad that Sean couldn’t organize the disco outing with me & his friends, because he lost his mobile phone again in a taxi. I do hope that there might come another time when we could meet up & do something together again. If not, it would be quite sad to just meet & get to know Sean’s friends only once in a year during his birthday. Even so, I’m glad that Sean has many friends that he meets up quite often… & may this coming New Year be a good & enriching experience for him.

Anyway, my relatives, cousins & I watched ‘Parent Trap’ & ‘Princess Diaries’ during & after our sumptuous dinner. I was particularly amazed at how Lindsay Lohan looked when she was such a young kid, when she filmed the movie ‘Parent Trap’. ‘Princess Diaries’ wasn’t a new show to me as well, but my Mum & Aunty Lilian enjoyed it a lot…

Thereafter, I went into a room to play with my younger cousins, all of them at least 10 years younger than me. I found that I could make young kids laugh when I exclaim certain remarks or crap certain jokes. Well, at least for this batch of primary & secondary school cousins, as well as occasionally my CG youths. But of course, being a full-fledged teacher is quite a different thing, coz then I won’t be just having fun with them, but having to teach, discipline & manage a whole class of crazy kiddos. It tires me from playing with kids too, but I guess over time, I learnt how to play with them, with minimal intensity & dry humor, such that I won’t be as tired as I used to be last time. All in all, it was a good time…