‘Ber’e we go again!

I woke up this morning at about 5:45, an unusual thing for me since I usually wake up at around 8am. After the tossing and turning in a futile attempt to go back to the sweetness that sleep offers, I gave up and went downstairs, surf the net for a while and from jumping from one site to another, decided to cook our breakfast since it’s a already a quarter before seven and from any time people will go down and look for food (it’s an unwritten rule in our house that whoever wake up first will cook our breakfast, that’s why I usually wake at 8  J ). I opened the refrigerator to look for food that could still be reheated and saw a pan which had been there for ages and throw the contents away. That’s when I feel it, and everything comes to place…

Just to be sure I look over the calendar and that’s it. It’s the first of September.

It’s the start of the famous “ber” months. J J J

Maybe that is why I woke up 2 hours earlier than my usual wake up time as if saying,  “Giddy-up Thea! What you feel is not a typical morning- dew frostiness it’s the Ber frost! Go outside and feel it!” And yes, something is different; the cold is iciness that nips my skin in small stings that my skin feels whenever touched by the holiday wind. My skin craves for it as it brings back a surge of memories from my childhood back in La Union. Holiday memories from my childhood, that is. The excitement of exchanging gifts (you might never know what to receive) and the Christmas vacation are just some of it.

But it’s not the just the unusual chill that reminds me of Christmas, because somebody in our neighborhood plays the song Give Love on Christmas Day at this early date. That, I guess, is the biggest contributor why I thought of Christmas this early. And somebody shouts outside greeting someone “Good morning, Merry Christmas!” Both of them just laugh, the person said also the same thing and added “Happy New Year too!” I can’t help but smile with them.

There are still 116 days before Christmas but I know a lot of people already think about the holidays now. Especially with the entry of the first ber month, in which to us Filipinos is one of the reminders of this holiday. Christmas is just around the corner but still is ages away. There are three more ‘ber’ months to do what we need to do to fully enjoy the festivities that this much anticipated season awaits us.

So before thinking about the holidays and devotedly praying and wishing that if possible it could come faster, I might as well do what is needed to be done now.

116 days from now... :)