I like December. It feels like the entire year I have been holding my breath and when December rolls around, I’m finally willing to exhale. That feeling is more evident this year than any other year previously. Growing up, my mother made a big deal of celebrating Christmas. We are not Christians. But on Christmas day, I would wake up to carols playing, the smell of freshly baked plum cake, a tree decorated with presents, a Santa hat on the pillow next to mine with a note that said “You are loved.” Of course, I didn’t appreciate these little moments then. Last year, it was the first Christmas that i didn’t spend with my mother. Flight tickets were expensive and i had only two weeks off. It didn’t seem worth it to fly halfway across the world only for a few weeks. On Christmas morning, i woke up lonely and depressed, i missed my mother terribly and more so, i missed her Christmas celebrations. If you ask my mother why she makes a big deal about Christmas, she’ll say “It’s the last full week before the year ends and endings must be celebrated.”
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