Without a doubt, our biggest holiday is Christmas. Parties, parties parties! Our poor little house nearly collapses when we have our street Christmas party! We need to prepare tons of appetizers and buy many drinks because our neighbours come and all they do is chat, eat and drink. For me, the most thrilling party is our pot luck get together with our neighbours from our old street. It entails a theme pot luck (some previous themes have been Italian, Japanese, fondu and one year all appetizers) We sing, dance and play all night! Well, not all night but still pretty late.
On Christmas Eve, nothing is more magical than having the whole family on my mom's side together, singing Christmas carols. My little cousins leave out milk and cookies for "Santa" and it's so adorable when they wake up and say: "They're gone! I think Santa liked them a lot! Look! He brought us presents!" Then we all wait and wait for our parents to get their coffee so we can finally open our presents. Our family of 17 nestles at a different place every year. We rotate between our house, my aunt Danièle's house in Montreal, my aunt Jenn's place, and my grandparents' condo in Toronto. We look forward when it's their turn to host, which is every four years, because they take us away for a week somewhere down south.
For Easter, we either all gather at our house, or at our grandparents' place in Toronto. When I say "we", I mean all 17 of us. We do the traditional "Easter egg hunt" and of course, I do it for the delicious chocolate! For my sister and I, Easter usually falls close to our birthdays which is in April. We do something else, totally unrelated to Easter on Easter Monday. We host our "Annual Skate and Donate!" Instead of having a traditional birthday party and asking for presents, we ask for donations for the "Masai for Africa" which is an AIDS clinic in Africa. We have raised over four thousand dollars in four years! We invite everyone we know to come skate for an hour and a half, and join us for cake and hot chocolate after.
Thanksgiving is not as much of a big deal for us. Of course other families would think it's a lot of work, but comparing to Christmas, Thanksgiving is barely a lift of our pinky finger. We cook a nice turkey feast and that's it that's all for the work. To me, Thanksgiving is walking in the leaves, sipping hot chocolate, sitting around the table with my family eating turkey, a nice relaxed little break from our daily lives. We go around the table telling each other what we are most thankful for in our lives.
I love holidays! When I am older, I hope to continue the holiday tradition with our extended family because not only does it turn out great, but it's lots of fun!
Life Lesson: Life is short, do the most you can while you can; go overboard on holidays!
On Christmas Eve, nothing is more magical than having the whole family on my mom's side together, singing Christmas carols. My little cousins leave out milk and cookies for "Santa" and it's so adorable when they wake up and say: "They're gone! I think Santa liked them a lot! Look! He brought us presents!" Then we all wait and wait for our parents to get their coffee so we can finally open our presents. Our family of 17 nestles at a different place every year. We rotate between our house, my aunt Danièle's house in Montreal, my aunt Jenn's place, and my grandparents' condo in Toronto. We look forward when it's their turn to host, which is every four years, because they take us away for a week somewhere down south.
For Easter, we either all gather at our house, or at our grandparents' place in Toronto. When I say "we", I mean all 17 of us. We do the traditional "Easter egg hunt" and of course, I do it for the delicious chocolate! For my sister and I, Easter usually falls close to our birthdays which is in April. We do something else, totally unrelated to Easter on Easter Monday. We host our "Annual Skate and Donate!" Instead of having a traditional birthday party and asking for presents, we ask for donations for the "Masai for Africa" which is an AIDS clinic in Africa. We have raised over four thousand dollars in four years! We invite everyone we know to come skate for an hour and a half, and join us for cake and hot chocolate after.
Thanksgiving is not as much of a big deal for us. Of course other families would think it's a lot of work, but comparing to Christmas, Thanksgiving is barely a lift of our pinky finger. We cook a nice turkey feast and that's it that's all for the work. To me, Thanksgiving is walking in the leaves, sipping hot chocolate, sitting around the table with my family eating turkey, a nice relaxed little break from our daily lives. We go around the table telling each other what we are most thankful for in our lives.
I love holidays! When I am older, I hope to continue the holiday tradition with our extended family because not only does it turn out great, but it's lots of fun!
Life Lesson: Life is short, do the most you can while you can; go overboard on holidays!
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