The joy of celebrating the festive season with loved ones

Dec 25, 2018 News

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By Feona Morrison

Once again, my absolute favourite time of the year is here. It’s Christmas! That time for sharing, good will and reflecting on the completion of a splendid year, while making resolutions for the new one.

To be honest, I love everything about the festive season—the cooking, decorating, cleaning, shopping and gift giving. But most of all, I value spending time with my family and close friends.
I always spend Christmas with my family. My “circle” comprises of mommy, daddy, and my three adorable, yet disgusting siblings. We spend Christmas day preparing a big Christmas lunch and dinner, playing carols and sending out season’s greetings.
On Christmas morning, we would all gather around the dining table to relish a good old Guyanese pepperpot with bread and a glass of fruit juice. After this, my little sister and I would prepare a Christmas lunch for the family. As per our family tradition, we would bake a whole chicken and cook raisin/fried rice. We would also prepare macaroni and potato salads. This always appeals to my sibling’s appetite and I top it off with a cup of chilled home-made ginger beer.
Apart from the lavish cooking, my other siblings spend the day opening presents that “Santa Claus” brought for them, which were placed under the Christmas tree (laughs). Ironically, my siblings ages 16, 18 and 20 and are fully aware that Santa does not exist. But they would still talk about North Pole’s most famous resident as if he were real.
Christmas evening is relatively quiet at home. It is the time when the living room is transformed into a kaleidoscope of colours. Mommy would usually take off the fluorescent tube and switch on the colourful, fairy lights
I serve dinner around 6pm. This is followed by dessert. It’s always ice-cream and jell-o, fruit cake, brownies, cookies and all sorts of things to tickle the taste buds. After eating up these delights, we would all sit and

watch Christmas movies one after the other.
My family always gets caught up in the last minute cleaning and shopping. Believe it or not, we began cleaning the home the very last week before Christmas. It’s shameful to say, but we are guilty of cleaning and decorating on the ‘big day’. For my brothers and sister, decorating the home brings them joy.

I don’t know why—but I think it is a lot of work. These kids are always eager to put up the garlands with those little red bows, fix the furniture or arrange the window curtains. I am not a big fan of this. I will stick to cooking and serving my mouth watering recipes.
Christmas shopping, oh my! This is so much fun but it can be frustrating at times when you have to manoeuvre through those large crowds in the city. I must confess that I’m a victim of last minute shopping. I normally buy the vinyl, flowers, toiletries and other

household items in the Christmas week. Christmas Eve night, I get out of the house in search of my goodies. Danish cookies, grapes, apples, walnuts and confectioneries–I hunt them down like a thirsty lion. These are a must have! I don’t go home until I get them and I mean all of them. When it comes to shopping, I easily get carried away with spending all my money on brand names colognes, watches and wallets. These are gifts I buy for my very close relatives and friends. My friends, they surprise me too. They know that I’m obsessed with that Victoria’s Secret store in the Court Yard Mall.
They are times when I go home broke and would have to depend on the little ‘foreign cash’ I manage to solicit from relatives overseas. Strangely, the thought of spending too much money never comes to mind. The delightful smiles on the faces of my loved-ones is all that matters to me. It brings me much joy to see them happy.
The days leading up to New Years are always filled with laughter and sometime arguments. This is normal in every home right? Outside of that, I would attend a party or two with my girls. I like getting dressed up to go for a glass of wine or high quality liquor. Not forgetting some seductive tunes to set the mood.
We are planning on ringing in 2019 in Church. I am really looking forward to this because I cannot remember what it’s like celebrating in God’s sanctuary. It has been about five years since I have attended an Old Year’s night service. I feel very fortunate to have my friends and family throughout the year, but especially around this time.
I get to show these people how much I love them and how grateful I am for having them in my life. Cherish the wonderful memories of this festive season. It’s a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace, hope and love. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from my family to yours!

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