Holidays and Books

I've been asked a couple of times this break if I actually felt the Christmas spirit.

Before saying yes or no, I think that I have to qualify the phrase "Christmas spirit". What do they mean when they say that? (1) Is it the feeling we used to get when we were ten years younger, that irrepressible excitement and giddiness, and the elating sense of awe and wonder the season brings? Of course, this also covers the potential mountain of presents we get (we got more back then, don't you agree?) (2) Or is it a spiritual one, gratitude for the coming of our Savior? (3) Maybe it's the heightening of a common human virtue of generosity? To see the happy faces of the people we give gifts to, just hearing the words "thank you", is enough to make us mirror their smiles. To actually know that they absolutely love the present we gave is like finding the Holy Grail. (4) Lastly, maybe it's just economic joy, a.k.a. angpao/aginaldo/bonuses. And all the sales in malls.


Maybe the Christmas spirit is a combination of all of these. I don't know. But I really miss the first one, and I really really wanted to feel that this year but up until Christmas Eve I was like, oh, yeah, it's Christmas... I didn't even feel a thing. There used to be, as I mentioned, an excitement that starts when the -ber months do leading up to the day itself. But there's none. I didn't even get to decorate our tree this year (during sembreak I had all the free time, you see. But they kept the tree and all the decorations up in Antipolo. Then just when second sem started and things got a little bit busy, I come home from my 7:30 class to find a tree complete with all the trims. Argh.)

I guess for me, it's more of the third one this year (and the fourth one, but that's secondary. Heehee.) I don't really give lots of presents every year, not unless I baked them. But this year, since it's senior year and all, I gave lots of stuff to lots of people. Okay, only eight of them. But there were lots of stuff. People started giving away tiny little things the last week of classes, food. Candy canes, cookies, brownies... Yum! And it felt wonderful to be given one even if it's just a small thing. So there, I gave. And it felt great. And they actually liked it. Yey! I even gave these pillows on an impulse to my friends present in the overnight. I don't know. I just saw them and thought they're cute and my friends would think they're cute so why not give them a dose of cuteness right? Hehe.

Well, that's Christmas 2008 for me. I did get some fabulous stuff though. But the feeling of having made people happy, even for the shortest time, is priceless. (Naks! Matouch na kayo!)

Anyway, I'm reading two books at the same time now. I've been trying to veer away from the young adult section books so I went to Books for Less to try other authors (buying brand new books from previously unread authors of mine is a risk my wallet cannot take). I bought three books: something (forgot the title) by Kristin Hannah (I don't really know why I bought this. I liked one of her books and sort of unconsciously started to collect her other books), Mary, Mary by James Patterson (I've never tried this genre of his, suspense is it?), and of course, if I'm gonna say that I'm a horror fan, I'd have to also read horror! So I started with the basic: Stephen King. Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It's a collection of his short stories. I wanna start with The Shining or Salem's Lot but I can't find them there so I just opted for this. So far, it's filled with crazy people. And kids are creepy. Lol.