Christmas time

Christmas is a time you spend with those closest to you, a time where family far and wide come together to celebrate the birth of our Saviour and possibly even share a nice Christmas dinner together.

haha, I watch too much television. In reality this doesn't happen. At least not in my family. Not for quite a while now. For the past 5 Christmas, time was spent away from home or away from my own family. Last year, I was at Urbana, the year before that, Hong Kong with just my mom and younger sister, the year before that the 5 of us spent Christmas day driving down to Florida. The year before that my parents left my sisters and I for Texas and the year before that, my mom and sister spent Christmas in HK again. This Christmas, they are once again in HK. While my dad and older sister are still around, we haven't spent one day together during this holiday.

During Christmas Eve, I spent the whole evening with church friends well into the wee hours of the morning. Today is Christmas day, I woke up early to eat brunch at my cousin's house but my dad and older sister were too lazy to wake up. When I came home, the house was empty. They had left to go about their own business. Tonight, instead of Christmas dinner at home, my dad has gone to his friend's party while sister went for dinner at her boyfriend's. My dad says there's left-overs in the fridge...wow, thanks dad! <-- insert sarcastic tone

This isn't a post about wanting to spend more time with my family, God no! But it has made me think, are we really celebrating Christmas for what it represents or is it just an excuse to indulge in gifts and gourmet dinners? Most of the people around me are using this holiday as a way of escape, to relax, to shop and watch movies, to go on trips and attend parties. Me including. Some of us who know what the real reason for the season is will go to church on Christmas Eve. But does that few hours at church justify the remainder of time spent during this season?