Christmas Past (2007)

I know it’s the new year, but I couldn’t resist blogging about last Christmas’ celebration. Sige na, pagbigyan nyo na ako.

My then-girlfriend-now-wife Maricel has always been excited about  Christmas, especially when the BER-months are nearing, and most especially when it’s the month of September. Came September last year, she said to me, “Baaaaaaby! SepterBER na… Christmas naaaa B!” I thought that was funny and sweet. I mean, I haven’t seen anyone so excited about Christmas… lalo na’t September pa lang!

Then came October, November, and finally, December. Of course, my baby is bigger now. He’s been more active (as I could feel he’s movements now), and my wife’s tummy is so much bigger than I expected it to be! Her tummy last November wasn’t that big. It’s like all of a sudden, she accidentally swallowed a watermelon!

We started buying gifts for our families─my parents, my sister, my in-laws. At this time, I had a problem. How am I supposed to buy a gift for my wife when we’re together all the time we were buying these gifts?

Then I had an idea. I’d buy that gift at a time she’ll not expect─office hours! I am fortunate to work in a company where employees are allowed to take breaks at their own convenient times. So, my mission that day, is to find a gift, purchase it without my wife knowing, and keeping all that a secret.

But before I could do all that, I had to think about the perfect gift. She had been hinting all these times about wanting to have new clothes, since her blossoming figure had been all-too-suddenly unexpected. That poses a problem, since it’ll be too obvious to her if I would buy her clothes. Why? Because that’ll mean I’d be asking her about her preferences. Pang-office ba? Pang-labas? Pang-daytrip? Pang-mall? Pang-bahay? Thought I wasn’t completely sure, it seemed she had been hinting that she’d want a pang-bahay showcase!

Knowing my wife, she’ll be confused to answer a question about what she wants. Like most women, she likes many things. From casual to formal clothes, variety of styles and types of shoes, myriad kinds, sizes, and shapes of bags, and a million types of accessories. Hmm… accessories? Now, that is an idea!

Just like anyone, every time we go out, we dress up. Amongst other things, my wife is fond of her earring collection, most of it she bought, and some were gifts from me. But I noticed, she has only one necklace─one she bought from one of my favorite silver jewelry shops. Sure she had many necklaces, all of them, bead-works. So, the one she bought is the only metallic jewelry she has, and that’s the only accessory she uses when we go out. From that, I thought, I’d give her a necklace, and I have to make it special. What other way to make a woman feel special but to give her a diamond, right?

Then came Christmas eve. At the strike of 12 midnight, by our tradition, my parents, sister, my mother-in-law, my wife, and myself were all in the living room beside our Christmas tree. We all gave our gifts to each other.

As everybody was busy opening gifts, laughing, joking at each other, I slipped out of the house to get my gift for me wife… and as I came back and sat beside her (she actually didn’t notice I left for 20 seconds), I said to her, “Baby, Merry Christmas… and happy anniversary! I love you.” Kissed her and gave her a box.

In just a moment, her eyes were flooded, and she was controlling her tears from falling but couldn’t. She said, “Nakaka-inis ka… hindi  ko alam…” At that moment, everybody looked at us. My mom and my sister were smiling (of course, they knew about the gift). Maricel opened the box, and there she saw is a simple white-gold necklace with a pendant accented by a diamond. I took the necklace from her and wore it to her, and they looked perfect. As perfect as she is to me. I thought, this would be one of the best Christmases we will share forever, as husband and wife.