A night in December

You observe the fumes of the hot coffee getting dispersed into the evening air, with a blanket wrapped around your legs, at this moment watching your favourite show with your sister on the couch seems like the best thing in the world. Just as you take the first sip of your coffee, your mum appears from her room giving you two a strange look. Even before you could open your mouth to ask her what the matter was, she snatches the remote from your sister and turns the TV off! You can sense “Get ready ASAP” written all over her expression and realize it’s your cousin’s wedding this very night. Your sister lets out a groan but gives in to your mum’s wishes nevertheless. You feel too heavy to be able to move yourself; your mom helps you in doing so by flinging the blanket you were wrapped in across the room, you beg her to let you finish your coffee first.
After sipping off the large mug of coffee and almost burning your tongue, you get hold of the dress to be worn for the night and make your way to the iron stand. An hour later you still seem to be struggling with your makeup, the best thing about winter makeup is that it stays for hours and hours.
Your family finally has to drag you out of the house for the wedding with you finishing off your make up in the car.
You start to shiver after getting out of the car, having forgotten to keep a shawl in a hurry; you try to suppress the shivers. Your eyes glitter in all the little lights hanging under the marquee, you soon are taken up by the hordes of cousins with only the frequent aroma of kebabs distracting you. The night goes by with a lot of laughter, food that warms you up and some more coffee. The function goes on till 1 am leaving your feet dead in the stilettos. Thanking God for the next day being a Sunday, you leave for your cozy home, taking off your shoes upon settling down in the back seat of the car. With your sister almost lying down beside you, you hardly get any space to spread yourself but never complain, as her heels had been 2 inches longer than your own giving her the right to be more tired. Your parents seem too tired to make any conversation and quietly turn on the car radio tuning in to some station playing old songs. You roll down the window to gulp in the cool night breeze, knowing it makes you fall asleep; you soon enter your world of dreams.

You know its December when you cannot lift yourself out of the bed in the mornings, when coffee turns into your favourite beverage, when you enjoy walking in the sun and when you get a wedding invitation every week. Winter is my favourite time of the year and probably yours too if you live in Paki land especially in a city like Karachi, we barely get rid of the humid, hot weather all year. You wish you could go back to your school days and enjoy having those most awaited winter vacations, waking up every morning for office is not much fun!! The nights are never ending but somehow end sooner than we expect them to.