Spending Christmas and New Year with Beloved Family
The higher the stork flies, eventually, it will return to the wallow as well. Most of us would probably agree that this proverb really gives special meaning towards the two upcoming special moments in Indonesia. First, is Eid ul-Fitr and the second is Christmas and New Year. No matter how much our legs have ventured, at last, these two occasions would eventually take us back into the arms of the loved ones.
Fortuners apparently do not want to miss this happy moments. Approaching the euphoria of Christmas carols and New Year’s trumpet, most of the Fortuners have been preparing various plans. Of course, the family also becomes an integral part of their plans. Moreover, Fortune Group also includes the 24th and 31st of December into the iron-leave days agenda. The Christmas and New Year Eve are going to be more special!
Graphic designer team of Activator of Fortune Indonesia, Syennie Valeria, is one of them. Syennie who will take her leave until early next year is planning to spend her Christmas in vacation with her family in Yogjakarta. Known as the city of students, Syennie and the family will visit Maria Cave, having pilgrimage to any Chatholic destinations that are in shape of natural caves with all times dripping stalactites and stalagmites. The cave that is located in the abdominal cavity of limestone hills becomes a favorite location to contemplate due to the silence it offers.
For Syennie’s family that isa multi-faith family, strolling is the best ‘seasoning’ when Christmas comes because all of her family have the same hobby which are traveling and backpacking. “When we were young, we like to decorate the Christmas tree together. Now it is only my mother that still keeps the tradition,” said Syenn
Syennie also said that Christmas Eve has always been incredible because it is also Syennie’s father birthday on December 24. “Usually, we regularly have dinner together. This year that is also one of the plans. The next day we will go to Yogyakarta and spending Christmas there,” she said excitedly.
PR consultant of Fortune PR, Maria Gabriella, also have similar plans. Although she still has not yet known where she will spend her holiday, Ella’s – how she is usually called – targets are already clear: to go home to her family in Surabaya. Spending Christmas with her family in Surabaya is an annual mandatory ritual. “On December 25, all the family will gathered at our only grandparents’ house in Surabaya.The next day, either we are going rafting together, going to Bali, or going sightseeing abroad, for sure, we all will have get together in our grandparents’ home on Christmas,”said Ella.
In addition to cure the longing feeling, the thing that Ella has been waiting when Christmas comes is to be able to eat her grandmother’s cooking. In addition to the mandatory snacks which consist of various cakes and cookies, there is also another special dish that never fails to generate her sense of longing. “Black ink calamari, stuffed chicken, and steak and beef tongue are the signature dishes of my grandmother during Christmas. I do not know how to make it, obviously it really does taste delicious,” she said. No wonder, when Christmas comes, the relatives that gathered at the grandparents’s house could reach almost 40 people! In fact, out of the total of eight siblings from my mother’s side, there are three people who celebrate Christmas,” said Ella.
In addition to family gathering, another mandatory agenda when she is in Surabaya is joining the choir in the cathedral during Christmas mass. This activity has been done since the last nine years. “Hence, my choir group is very solid, just like a family. Wherever we work, we all must return to Surabaya on Christmas so that we could sing together at the church. They are very serious, that even the song chords are sent via email so that we can all exercise alone,”said Ella.
This year Christmas is also very special for Ayunita Miranti, art director of Pegasus Fortune Indonesia team. For a woman who has just got married on October 2012, the incoming December 25 is her first Christmas with her husband. Therefore, they both have decided to spend Christmas in her husband’s hometown in Sukabumi.
Mira, how she is called, admitted that she was not raised in a family that likes to celebrate Christmas. “the special annual tradition in my family is not Christmas, but Chinese New Year. Therefore, this year is my first Christmas with my husband and it will become my first special Christmas moment,”said Mira who claimed to have already prepared a gift for her husband.
Any special plans that you have designed together with your family for Christmas’ and New Year’s Eve, hopefully, it can become a motivation for Fortuners before the starting the new year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013!