Perils of The Season

Pneumonia. That’s what I got myself for Christmas. Post-Christmas, technically. But I still feel so robbed of my holiday celebrations, having missed most of the reunions I intended to boycott in the first place. I guess it’s different when you don’t have a choice in the matter, you start to feel like you actually want to go.

I had intended this holiday season to be low-key, what with the tenor of everything I’d been through the entire year. But early on, I saw how that was not to be the case. Christmas parties and dinners left and right you just couldn’t say no to, friends coming home you just had to meet up with. Sisters’ break-ups, frenzied last-minute shopping trips to malls packed with frenzied last-minute shoppers… Plus, there was the planning of our annual clan party, which I had decided to turn into a Hollywood-themed gala (originally because I wanted to show off the Nicole Richie headpiece I crafted out of odds and ends). More work. Whoop-dee-doo.

So there was I was, lying in bed, sick for one and a half weeks. My plans for a New Year bash in the island with endless booze while freeloading off a resort’s grand fireworks display replaced with an endless supply of Ventolin, Ciprobay, Sinupret, Fluimucil and round-the-clock Tempra. What a far, far cry from how I greeted 2009- 1 tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila, four, 5 tequila, 6 tequila 7 tequila floor (ended up being literally hosed down by my cousin after falling flat on my ass in the mud)! Then again, I had every intention to NOT celebrate this New Year’s that way. Or any other ever again. Haha. But the temptation must’ve still been there. That’s probably why I ended up sick, to avoid the misadventures I would’ve most likely had had I been in better shape.

What is it with the need to end and start the year with a bang anyway? So cliché.

Still, I feel blessed to have been able to spend my December the way I did. Sure, I could’ve lived without the drugged-up stupor. But if that’s what it takes to steer clear from the perils of the season, I’ll take it gladly. And for once, I remembered to celebrate the reason for the season, and being able to share that moment with my family and friends was just… priceless.