Christmas tree

Yesterday, my younger sister came over to gather some of her books and stuff. The last time I saw her was when I gave her some shirts and new duty pants, maybe a month or two ago. BaNing looked radiant in the fuscia shirt with a fuzzy teddy bear design and she was really animated and happy as she related her latest updates. I can almost forget her "I am dying" text messages in the past months. We swapped stories on what we've been doing, etc. It's really good to have family members around. I miss my parents. (They're still with my brother and they will have their first white Christmas.) After my sister left, I hauled BaNing's Christmas Tree from the cabinet and took my time decorating it with trimmings. Last Christmas, to celebrate Dad's first year of his new lease to life post stroke, I made him participate in the Christmas Tree moment. He was hesitant at first, maybe because the different sizes, shapes and colors were still confusing to him or maybe, he couldn't remember the Christmas Tree idea just yet. Eversince we were kids, we had this Christmas Tree decorating tradition. Every year we had a new Tree because Dad started the tradition by choosing the best bamboo sticks from the backyard which he would patiently cut and whittle into shape and then hammer together to form our family Tree. This would be followed by our going to the store for the trimmings which included lots of cotton, paste, crepe paper, and Christmas balls. Once all the materials are gathered, everyone in the family, including the youngest scramble to take part in the different tasks ahead. It was funny when we were kids because we always quarrelled over the paste or the size of the leaves, or the curling spoon. Somewhow, we managed to cut the crepe paper into shape, curl the cut shapes into leaves, and paste the ready leaves on the bare tree. To give a white Christmas idea, we put cotton on the leaves. I miss those moments. Nowadays, all we do is buy plastic trees from the shop and put colored lights around it.

My commercial Chrismas tree has a hodgepodge of red ribbons, tiny toys, shiny balls, yellow and red lace, blinking lights and an orange poinsettia on top. I hope Dad gets to help decorate the Christmas Tree with my brother's family this year.