“It doesn’t feel like Christmas.” Dore said as we drove over the Bay Bridge.
“What feels like Christmas?”
“Well, growing up in the East Coast—snow, I guess.”
And we didn’t hear any “Christmas” music while having dinner at Nong Thon, the Vietnamese restaurant in El Cerrito. Nor have we noticed any Christmas lights–or are we too desensitized to notice what is shining in front of us?
Christmas used to be quite noticeable: when father brought home a tree, when we went to the midnight candlelight service and sang carols, and home to the gifts, which must stay wrapped until the 26th. It’s the tradition that I had come to expect year after year.
Take them away, Christmas feels like just another day.
So why not do them, the traditions, if you wish Christmas to feel like Christmas?
If the tradition of Christmas means good friends getting together over a table of good food–then Nong Thon certainly felt like Christmas.
I don’t mean the sacredness of the Christ in Christmas: I mean the sacredness of eating together, sharing and enjoying the same food.
Christmas Eve at Nong Thon
(Kept open by accident or was it design?)
No plum pudding no Christmas goose
And yet wonderful soup
Wonderful vegetables
Beautifully cooked meat
Laughter
And the adventure
Of the New:
Have you ever tasted
Durian?
Aren’t those things
Christmas
Too?