Actually, I never knew what Christmas really means for me. It's not a day I can relate with spiritually, nor do I have a tradition of celebrating it in any special way. In the past, maybe. We used to stay over at my maternal grandparents' place where the kids exchanged gifts, the Catholics went to church, there's Christmas tree in the living room and good food on the dinner table. That was my idea of Christmas.

But things have changed. The kids grew up and the yearly gathering pretty much stopped for other reasons. So now, there's nothing festive that we do at home. And whereas I used to like Christmas as a kid, it makes grown-up me a little worried and grumpy now because whenever Christmas is around the corner, I'm reminded that the year is about to end and that there are many things on my list undone. Bah. So what's left of Christmas for me? It's probably going out with friends, a lot of eating and shopping, and trying very hard to get into the spirit of the season, whatever that means.

Merry Christmas, everyone!