What Still Connects Me To My Late Parents; Christmas.

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This is my response to "Weekend-engagement post topics 76: Your celebrations" You can also join the challenge here.

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Special shout out to @galenkp for this opportunity to share...and go down the memory lane. The closest I get to my parents is when I talk about them, so thanks for this.

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Topic:

What is one of your favourite celebrations of the year to enjoy and why. How do you prepare for it, what's involved with the celebration and so on?

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[Source]

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My favourite celebration of the year still remains Christmas. Oh! How I love Christmas. I grew up loving this season because of the decorations and the new things my dad used to buy for every one of us including my mum.

It's a special period of the year where you look back at how far the year has gone and regardless of the events, you are still thankful to be seeing the year draw to a close and hope for a better year ahead. It's the moment where the message of Christ's birth ring and sound loud which provokes repentance and resolutions to do something better for the new year. This particular time of the year signifies hope and a clean slate for me and that's why I love it more.

My dad would set aside his money to get my siblings and me with my mum, shoes, clothes and give us extra money to spend during this period. I would use my share of the "Santa spoil" to buy what we call "Knock out" or "Banger" just to usher in the festivity.

My dad would buy Christmas decorations of various kinds except for the Christmas tree and he usually buy all these in the first week of December. The Christmas lights and decorations would come in and we would set it up in the first week of December. I have read from many Filipinos that their Christmas celebration starts as early as September and that's why they have been called the people who celebrate Christmas the longest but for us here in Nigeria; Africa, the earliest anyone would start any celebration would be late November or early December. Sometimes it rolls into the second week of December depending on what had happened during the course of the year.

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The second week of December, my dad would take us shopping for clothes and shoes and we always look forward to it and now they adulthood has set in and I know how much I have to cough out with more responsibilities coming in, I don't celebrate it much except staying with family members to eat and have a laugh, but it remains my favourite especially for the family bonding.

We get to buy a lot of chickens too and eat them. We usually eat meat and fish during the course of the year but Chickens are saved for special moments like Christmas and that's why I love this season too.

A lot of reasons to fall in love with Christmas; family time, new clothes, celebration; eating of Chicken, the message of hope and moment for sober reflection, holiday - time to relax without having to bother about school or work or anything else, time to get away with staying up late at nights to watch movies or play games.

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It remains my favourite time of the year and those are the things we do as a family - have fun, decorate, eat, have visitors over and then serve them food because that's the best time to receive your friends and even potential girlfriend that would be hidden as a friend without being questioned hahaha. My mum used to be a very private person and she loves her space. She doesn't really like having people over and if they must come, don't overstay your welcome but this period is the time she let loose and would have to allow visitors to come over to play all day and then relatives come over for a week to bond.

I will always hold it dear to my heart this particular celebration because it's what we did together as a family and it's what still connects me to my late parents when I think about the fun times we had together during Christmas.

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Thank you for your time.

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My pen doesn't bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.

Still me,

My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.

Olawalium; (Love's chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor's order.