LADIESOFHIVE CONTEST #113: While the people are celebrating New Year's Eve, here I am

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When I was still a kid, I was really excited to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve with my family. There is this happy memory that I still never forget: during Christmas, we are so excited because our aunts and uncles are always giving us some money, and sometimes they act as if they are Santa Claus. In one sack, there are some wrapped gifts that they will display on our Christmas tree, and we can get them and open them before Christmas. It was from our aunt who lives in the USA.

But things are very different now. I mean, I am not a kid anymore, and I am aware of my surroundings already. Because when I was a kid, our family seemed to have no problems at all, and I always obeyed my mom's advice and lessons that I should not be involved in adults' conversations.

In the past years of holiday seasons and new year's eve, I experienced just sleeping with my grandparents while other people around the world celebrated the new year. I also experienced being sad because we don't have some foods and we can't celebrate it because we don't have money, and our aunts and uncles choose to celebrate Christmas or sometimes the New Year on their own.

Well, since I was still a kid back then, of course I cried because I was jealous of the other families who could celebrate these occasions with a complete family. But I realized right now that I should not be sad or cry because of that because, right now, I think a day like that is just a normal day for me. If you want to know why, Keep on reading.

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Last year's New Year's Eve, I spent the money that I earned from blogging just so we could have some foods for the celebration because our aunts and uncles had their own plans and preferred to celebrate with their own families again.

I don't like to experience what I did when I was a kid and just sleep while the others are celebrating the New Year, because that is the saddest memory that I have about the "New Year's celebration."

_{Celebrating New Year's eve 2022 with my Lolo,Lola, and Older Sis.}

PLUS, I wanted my grandparents to be happy and experience a good New Year's Eve too, of course and I am glad because they are happy at that time. Though we celebrate it in our own houses, we as a family are just living in one compound, so we can just watch and celebrate it together by watching and lighting fireworks.

_{Fireworks last New year's eve 2022}

But this time, I think our New Year's celebration will not be the same anymore. I mean, a lot of things happened this year in our family, and I admit that I am not on good terms with my family for a personal reason that I can't say here.

That's why I said at the beginning or introduction of this blog that Christmas and New Year's Eve are just normal days for me because I'd rather just sleep than go outside and celebrate them with my family. I can't feel the excitement to celebrate those occasions anymore because we have problems with each other, and I don't like to celebrate them while we are all on bad terms.

That's why, in our house right now, there's no Christmas tree, though we have one. Our Grandma didn't bother to put it in our living room and decorate it because she also felt unsure if we could still celebrate it. She just put Christmas lights outside of our house. We also didn't bother to plan what we would do on Christmas or New Year's Eve.

So, all I can do during that day is the same as what I do every day and night. I will spend my time like:

Watching some Korean dramas or new release movies this month of December

_{Image Source: @Freestocks | Unsplash}

There are a lot of new released korean dramas and movies that I wanted to watch, but I still couldn't find the time to do so. That's why I decided to save those other series for New Year's Eve. What I really like to watch on those occasions is horror. Alice in Borderland season 2 will be aired tomorrow (December 22), but I don't know if I can save it for New Year's Eve because there are a lot of spoilers on different social media platforms.

Videocall with my Mom

_{Image Source: @emilianocicero | Unsplash}

My mom wasn't able to go home to celebrate her birthday and the holidays with us. Last year, we weren't able to have some time to call each other during New Year's Eve because the time was not the same.

Anyway, today is her birthday, and I am sad because she couldn't celebrate it again with us. Again, all I can do is just a simple greeting, as she doesn't want us to spend some money to celebrate her birthday today.

Now, what I am hoping for is that she will have some time to talk with us on New Year's Eve, even though we are away from each other. We can still celebrate it and spend the time virtually.

Sleep

_{Image Source: @gingermias | Unsplash}

And last is sleep. I'm not sure if we can have some budget to celebrate the new year, but even if we can, I'd rather sleep after watching and video calling with my mom. Because I don't feel like eating at midnight, just like how we celebrated new years in the past, I can still eat the food in the morning after I woke up, right?

CONCLUSION...

These are just the things I will do before and/or during New Year's Eve. I know, it looks as if I don't care about celebrating the new year, but we have our own decisions about how we can celebrate the new year. As for me, I can just watch some movies, call my mother, who lives in another country right now, and just sleep during that time because it's not new to me anymore. It seems like we just celebrate those occasions in the same way and with the same foods.

If ever we will celebrate the new year, I think a simple meal on the table is enough for us since we get used to eating those foods on every occasion, and I don't like to celebrate it with too much food on our table because sometimes they just get wasted because we didn't finish them all, or I think we don't have a problem with foods when our neighbor has a lot of foods on their table and we can just help them to finish them because it is customary in the Philippines to have a big and lavish feast even though they don't consume it and just stock it in their refrigerator for almost 7 days or more.

So this is my answer for @ladiesofhive Community contest #113. For this week blogging contest, they have tow questions and I choose to answer the question number 1.

1️⃣ What do you plan to do on the 31st right at midnight?

What do you think about my Answer? Thanks for reading!

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Date: December 21, 2022
Published by: @xanreo | HIVE