My christmas memories with my family are my prized possesions. I am sure it is, for most of us. I missed so many christmases through the years. I missed everything else associated to it, even inanimate objects like our living room and the long narra table in our kitchen.
I cherish those moments with my family. It is because among us siblings, it was me who spent most of my time away from them. I was sixteen when I left home for college. I rarely went home for Christmas when I was working. Now, I permanently reside in Manila, with my family.
There are two things that I am so accustomed to during Christmas that I actually miss right now. Yeah, I am missing our living room and our long narra table this Christmas.
one Christmas morning, at our living room in Cagayan de Oro City with my husband and my brothers who were playing with the gift my son received, a remote control car ( boys will always be boys)
1. Christmas Morning in the Living Room
You see, on ordinary days when we were younger, our airy living room would be bare. It would have a sofa, a few narra chairs and side tables. It had throw pillows that matched the color of the curtains. There were no gadgets or modern appliances back then, save for a colored television(if only to distinguish it, from the black and white television sets that were still around that time). The living room had nothing expensive, except for maybe the numerous books around it. It had nothing special, aside from the precious laughter of my younger siblings. It used to be the biggest world we had as children. Our living room, well, it was living and it was full of life, most especially on Christmas mornings.
The Living Room
During christmas time, my mom would put together the christmas tree, the belen and the rest of her christmas decorations. That is to say then that the living room gets cramped and crowded. The memories I have of Christmas Day, would be those early christmas mornings with the family in the living room of the Banaag residence. I loved those mornings. Everyone would just lounge lazily in the house. No hint of the days gone by that was filled with so much activity. My brothers including my father would be walking around the house shirtless, shaming “Bench” models and Coco Martin, just like that ( or as my Lola would say, “ga hukas-hukas.) But I have one brother though, who would already be dressed up,( “ispooting” ) and prepared for the Christmas Mass. By the sofa would be my sister Mirzi , reading a book – a Stephen King or the Popular Science (yes, on christmas mornings). My brother Marco, would be by the radio -listening to his favorite songs.
I distinctly remember how everything looked like on christmas mornings. Our sala would be a picture of order and chaos.
Katol Boxes
Scattered all over the floor, in our living room, would be small pieces of paper or what was left of the christmas gift wrappers. It would also be filled with empty KATOL boxes -which were used for the manito-manita gifts the night before. But then of course, we grew older and became a teeny bit “sosy”. As a result, we stopped using katol boxes. In other words, we could already afford the gift boxes from the mall ( so no more kahtol, pak ang lamok tehpok).
Moreover, I remember hearing the voices, of my younger siblings, Pia, Steffi, and Geo. I would hear their footfalls moving towards the direction of the christmas tree. They would be checking out their gifts from Santa -a tradition which we all grew up with. ( So my two younger sisters would be reading this. I am pretty sure they would say, “Tinuod gyud Ate? Imo pa gyud ma remember among mga footfalls?”)( P.S. my brothers call these two younger girls, ” Mad-Litas”, by the way.)
2. Christmas and the Long Narra Table in the Kitchen
The Narra Table
Our kitchen, like most Filipino homes in the province, has a long narra table in the middle of it. On christmas mornings, our narra table hold the left-over food from Noche Buena.
I would be by our narra table eating cold spaghetti (yes, straight out of the fridge – ako po ang tirador ng pastang lamig).
Beside me would be my younger brother, Vito Filip scraping the icing off the butter cake from Dayrit’s of Pacana Burgos. Right across the table would be our Dad drinking his sikwate ( hot chocolate).
My mom would by the sidelines, taking a spoonful of the food that she cooked the night before. Then, she would suddenly become her own food critic. She would always start by taking a swipe at her own leche flan.
“Buskag ug lata lagi ni akong leche flan”( soggy leche flan). But of course it wasn’t. It never was.
My mom makes great leche flans. It is just, the poor leche flan gets this every Christmas time.
If only those leche flans could speak , they might have said :”Sorry ha, hindi ako purr-fect!’”-chanelling Lea Salonga in ” Sana Maulit Muli.
Next on her list would be the buko salad. “Hala na tam-isan ra diay to nako ang buko salad kagabii”(the buko salad last night was too sweet.”Kulang ug raisins, gikaon man gud sa mga bata.”(it lacked raisins because the kids ate them (raisins) Or the hamonado/a. “Hala parat diay ‘tong hamonada gabii”(the hamonada dish was salty). To which my Dad would add,”Oo, balud nalang ang kulang, dagat na.” (“Alon na lang ang kulang, dagat na”)(Add some waves, you get the sea.”)
Therefore having heard that, she would pick up the entire hamonada from the table, place it back in her large kettle and cook it again with brown sugar.
Wala ko Ka Kaon
Upon seeing the missing hamonada from the table, one of my brothers, who had just stepped into the kitchen, would suddenly say. ” WALA KO KA KAON”( I have not eaten ).
“Wala ko ka kaon”, in my big family was delivered in a melodramatic way. It did annoy my mom sometimes, if not all the time. It was because we made it sound like she had not fed us, EVER!
(hinaya ra na inyong mga tingog, abi pa lang sa silingan wa mo pakaona sukad sukad – mommy)
Our narra table was privy to many scenes like those, especially during Christmas Day. Our narra table -together with the mantil ( or the table cover) stood witness, to many Noche Buena Feasts and Christmas Mornings in the family.
3. The Christmas Spirit of Love and Family
Christmas might had come and gone. But the Christmas spirit of love and family stays. Most of us have families of our own now. My sister, my three younger brothers and I are now married with children.
None of us today are saying, ” Wala ko kakaon.” But instead it is our turn to give our own children, some great christmas morning memories. Our children will have their own version of christmas mornings, narra tables and living rooms.
But for now, I most especially thank our spacious living room and our long narra table for the happy times together. I miss you both.
To everyone, I hope you all have a Happy Christmas!
Update:
Oh well wait ! Now that we are in this pandemic and our family cannot all be together on Christmas Day , I am pretty sure our narra table will be holding a feast so let me say this in advance… WALA KO KA KAON! 😆😆😆
REVISED from when it was published in 2015
