It’s that time of the year once again, a time for Christmas presents, Christmas food and Christmas reunions. And if you’re a bit OC like me, for sure you’ll be just about losing your marbles organizing those reunions.
Ever since we graduated from college, my high school friends and I have always had a Christmas reunion in order to catch up with each others’ lives. In college, we ended up splitting up in twos. Cathee and I went to DLSU, Rachel and Darls went to Assumption, Ina and Monalee went to UP while Jem and Mia stayed in St. Scho. It got harder to keep in touch while we were in college. So after we all graduated, we vowed to keep the friendship alive by being present during our Christmas reunions.
The reunions started with us going to whatever place was convenient for all of us but eventually when we started having children, it was more comfortable for us to pick someone’s house instead. This year, it was Jem and Joey’s house because Jem was already on her 8th month of pregnancy and was on bedrest. This year, however, there were only four of us girls who attended, me, Jem, Darls and Ina. Cathee is already in Canada, Mia’s living in the U.S. while Monalee is in Australia. Rachel had a company Christmas party to attend and so couldn’t come to our reunion too.
Our Christmas tradition is usually the same every year. It’s always potluck and the food mostly stays the same each year. We all bring gifts for the kids, which they open all at the same time. And us girls each bring one gift for exchange, para tipid! And guess who organizes all this each and every year? Yes, me….always me. It gets harder every year as everybody gets busier and busier but I still keep doing it. I don’t know if it’s just because of my natural affinity for creating events and maintaining order or maybe it’s just because I miss my friends and how we all used to be.
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| Me, Jem, Darls and Ina |
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| the food! |
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| with our kids |
The thing is, it takes work to maintain friendships, just like any other relationship. You have to give enough time and effort to make it work coz some friendships just don’t survive when you don’t keep in touch. Makes me think about my college friends. We used to have our Christmas reunions too but eventually I got tired of organizing them because it was harder to “make” them come. And that’s the big thing there, if your friends really want to be there, you won’t have to make them come, right? So, hopefully, that doesn’t happen to me and my high school friends. We’ve been through so many ups and downs individually and as a group. It would be such a waste if we just let our friendships go.