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We never leave home during Christmas. Tradition has nothing to do with it. It is about me being away most of the time that I prefer to be kept in fetters at home during the holidays. Besides, we have two birthdays to celebrate on the 20th and 24th of December. We bond on music playing and gorge on foods we traditionally share with our relatives and experiment cooking. This indulgence last until New Year and consequently we gain cellulite we then promise heaven and hell to burn as our new year’s resolution. But it seems there are no angels and devils around – who are also off for a holiday – to hear our plea. Even if they are around, I wonder if they would give priority to ours. It is completely one of human weakest points nothing divine or hellish. Throughout the years, we are stuck on the same sinful routine – Gluttony – and state of hopelessness over the accumulated collateral on foods and inactivity. We hate ourselves facing the mirror nude.

Well, even global recession cannot, in anyway, affect Filipino penchant for the holiday and treat.

For 2008, we decided to leave home on Christmas. This is our second time around this year to be away from home. We left on December 23rd on a boat to Dumaguete city. We chose Dumaguete for the holiday because a close friend of mine who is the rector of the Cathedral there dropped us an invitation when he passed by our home a couple of weeks ago. So, it was truly an opportunity to spend less and experience a different Christmas.

We thought of staying in the rectory but upon arrival, we were billeted in a hotel adjacent to the Cathedral. It was a cozy accommodation that we felt very much at home. We had an uncomfortable feeling that we lost our fetters to a prison-like accommodation. The only difference is that we were equipped with amenities and given the freedom to get out of the prison anytime we like. We were not a religious family but we attended 2 masses there: in a Cathedral on the 24th and Barangay Banilad’s fiesta celebration on the 26th. We chanced also to visit a close relative who is presently residing in Dumaguete.

During our stay, we failed to temper our wicked habit. We gorged on foods once again and suffered some stomach disorders but it did not stop us from hopping on restaurants. It was actually a fun-filled holiday but nothing different from home except for the ambience. On the 25th we tried to scour the city for a spot but to our dismay most of the spotlights and malls were closed. Well, we forgot we were in a holiday in a holiday. People prefer to stay at home when the climate was not also giving the holiday its full share of the sun.

We left Dumaguete on the 27th and happy to be back home. Anyway, there was nothing really special about the vacation except indeed for the Ozzy feeling of “there’s no place like home”.