Christmas is upon us

CHRISTMAS is upon us, even at the hospital where I work. Here's the makeshift tree at the sixth floor. It's made of empty piperacillin-tazobactam boxes. How very medical.

Just so you know, my brothers and I never grew up with a Christmas tree in December. Our mother felt it a chore to put one up, always postponing, always "next year na lang." When she did decide to finally have one, we were already grown up, out of the house, in Manila or Davao, studying and working.

Now she tells us that her tree looks wonderful. "Yes, Mother, it probably is," we reassure her, as good kids do.