Christmas can't be crossed out.
By eileenleyva
@eileenleyva (27555)
Philippines
December 20, 2020 4:04pm CST
A bit busy the activities this time of the holidays have become. Mostly, the kitchen is a non-stop cluttering of cutlery, a taste of this dish and another taste of that. Hmmm, the smell of the fiesta chicken ham and lasagna, chicken embotido in a steamer, and the sight of the red velvet cheese cake already satiate the senses. Being the taste tester, sigh, I know I have already added the ungainly weight.
But Christmas is all that and more. There's the matter of ordering goodies for friends. No fruit cakes this year, 'rellenong bangus' for my elderly friends instead. Delivering them on the 24th, in time for Noche Buena.
Amid the busyness, I heard the United Kingdom is cancelling Christmas. A deadly variant of the virus was rendered lethal that celebrating Christmas would be foreboding. No gathering, no merry-making.
Yet, Christmas can't be crossed out. Christmas will come on the 25th. It's just the gathering and merry-making that won't transpire.
This is the Christmas, actually, when Christmas has become all the more meaningful simply because we are compelled to focus on the birthday Celebrator.
Praying for you, UK.
7 people like this
8 responses
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
27 Dec 20
@thelme55 One said she was put in ICU care for CoViD cases.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
27 Dec 20
I have young friends working as doctors and nurses in London. Not one posted a Christmas message.
1 person likes this
@thelme55 (79352)
• Germany
27 Dec 20
@eileenleyva Maybe they were not in the mood to send a message.
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
27 Dec 20
News reports are getting grimmer by the hour.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (41028)
• Philippines
21 Dec 20
Yep it seems the virus has stepped up with the vaccine. If this new strain is mire potent against the vaccine then we are all going to step 1 again. I guess everyone around the world will make this Christmas celebration as mellow as it should be. But I guess we will continue to go and celebrate it the best way to reach out family and friends the best that technology and innovation can offer.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (41028)
• Philippines
28 Dec 20
@eileenleyva Just before Christmas my wife got this sad news, her cousin in San Francisco was admitted to the hospital for COVID. He is I guess of the same age as I am and just day before Christmas day he was put in ICU and today we heard from them that it said that the Machine was in full capacity and we do not know if time will be kinder to him to recover.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (41028)
• Philippines
1 Jan 21
@eileenleyva I think he has. The development of his infection was so fast that only days after he was confined he was transferred to ICU. I think the cousins here in the Philippines are planning to have zoom meeting to talk about and maybe pray for him. I do not know him but l feel sorry that it’s not working for him as the medication I took was similar to what l took but it seems not working on him.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
1 Jan 21
@rsa101 That is sad news indeed. Was he able to avail of a machine?
1 person likes this
@allen0187 (59827)
• Philippines
21 Dec 20
Heard about this. I tend to agree with them. We both know that people won't cancel Christmas but it is best to celebrate it in a toned-down manner this year.
1 person likes this
@allen0187 (59827)
• Philippines
29 Dec 20
@eileenleyva saw this on the news. It was an RV that exploded right? Didn't follow it though.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
27 Dec 20
The pandemic situation at its worst. Zero space for the ill at the hospitals. Coffins stacked one on top of another.
Airports full.
Sigh.
Christmas did pass with an explosion in Nashville.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
29 Dec 20
@allen0187 Yup. One depressed senior citizen diagnosed with cancer chose to go with a real loud bang. Sad story.
1 person likes this
@Raine38 (12387)
• United States
20 Dec 20
Maybe this time people will finally realize the real meaning of Christmas. Consumerism and projecting a certain way of life have dictated the way we celebrate life's happenings. This does not mean that I am glad the virus has to wreak this havoc for us to learn, not at all. Despite everything, we all have something to be thankful of.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
27 Dec 20
I feel the same way. In fact, as early as the first month of shelter-in-place, I felt amused at seeing a picture of a bear wondering where the humans are that the bear literally peeped at the front door. The resident did catch the image on camera. That was followed by many more images of animals hitting the streets, sprawling on the main thoroughfares with no care in the world. Gosh, I thought, finally the humans are deprived of dominance.
Grateful for earth having a time to heal itself.
Yes, it was a thought that people do reflect and know the true meaning of Christmas. Apparently though, many have utter disregard to the contagion that consequently took their lives. Many are still stubborn.
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
27 Dec 20
@Raine38 The Black Plague and the Dark Ages were bad. World War 1 and World War II brought devastating effects both to man and the earth. But there is none more despicable than the situation the world is in right now. Half a century is, at the most, the estimate given to repair the planet before a doomsday scenario. Could be the biblical eschatology in the offing.
@Raine38 (12387)
• United States
27 Dec 20
@eileenleyva History will repeat itself until the lesson is learned. The only sad part is, the lesson learnt will sometimes have to come at the expense of others' suffering. But such is the complexity of the human mind and reasoning.
1 person likes this
@ExplorewtMe (6332)
• Nairobi, Kenya
20 Dec 20
I too heard about UK canceling flights because of the new deadly variant of the virus.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
20 Dec 20
I have not heard the news entirely but I'd check on that later.
Just have some pressing matters at the moment.
1 person likes this
@ExplorewtMe (6332)
• Nairobi, Kenya
21 Dec 20
@eileenleyva There were news about the second waves in ew places.
1 person likes this
@Letranknight2015 (52665)
• Philippines
26 Dec 20
You can't make me crossed out nine days of night mass, no way. People can celebrate christmas at homes.
1 person likes this
@UriahAnne (701)
•
12 Jan 21
Yes praying for UK.sometimes I ask my self what happen to our world.this coming virus makes me scared again.i just celebrate Christmas with my family inside the house.after we eat we just sleep.Because our house still not clean.because of a typhoon hit my hometown all the places is full of mud and water.our place has no electricity due to flood
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27555)
• Philippines
12 Jan 21
The pandemic has actually taken all the peoples of the world drastically. We were all caught by shock and fear. In the Philippines, it came right after Taal Volcano happened. Really devastating especially for people who must shelter-in-place at evacuation centers. Then the typhoons lashed later in the year. Condition more harrowing. My surrounding area was deep in waters.
God's way of scolding us. Bear with the trials. We have to survive.
