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Memoir Monday: When You Were a Child, What Did You Look Forward to Most?

I live in a city bordered by the Caribbean Sea, so going to the beach takes me 10 minutes or 20 if I go by public transportation. The same if I want to go to the river or to the mountains it is easy and close. Every weekend we would go out as a family to walk to natural and unknown places or just go for a walk to eat ice cream or hamburgers. But when I was a child it wasn't going for walks that I looked forward to the most, what I looked forward to the most was a season: what I looked forward to the most was Christmas.

Christmas for me was, is and always will be a special time. And it's not just Christmas, it's the whole month of December. When I was a little girl and had no notion of time, I knew that December was coming because of two things: First, my mother would take a garland of lights out of a red box and put it on the front door of the house. Since we were very poor, that was the only Christmas decoration we had and when they took it out of the box, I knew that December had arrived and it was a huge thrill. The other sign was my birthday. While I was sleeping, my grandmother would open my hand and put a big coin in my hand. When I woke up and saw that coin in my hand, I knew it was the month I received the most presents.

In December, my country, and I would like to think that all the countries of the world, acquires a different air and color. It is as if not only the clock of bad events stops, but also the miracle of goodness and good deeds happens within us. I have seen and witnessed how people without empathy, without solidarity with others, are touched by the ghost of Christmas, as it did with the miser Scrooge, and become good and noble creatures.

Perhaps, it is supposed to be that people should be good all year round, do good without looking at whom, the time or the date on the calendar, but it is not like that. However, Christmas makes even the stones soften and from the biggest thorns, roses come out. That is the miracle that Christmas does.

At home we grew up believing not in Santa Claus, but in Baby Jesus, who at 12 o'clock on the night of the 24th passes by every house and leaves toys for the children who have behaved well. At home we were 4 girls and one boy, so I can't imagine how our parents managed to buy 5 toys and especially to hide them so that none of us children could see them.

Since the beginning of December we used to make our letters and put them under our pillow until the baby Jesus passed by. About this I remember that in one occasion, my older sister got low grades in school and the day the baby Jesus took the letters, he didn't take hers. She had to write another letter where she promised him that she would get good grades and behave very well. And then the Baby Jesus took her letter. Hahahaha.

As a personal anecdote, I remember on one occasion that Baby Jesus "made a mistake" and gave a dollhouse to me and a board game (Bingo) to my younger sister. I remember that when my parents realized the mistake they had made, they made us exchange the toys. Of course I started crying because all my life I had dreamed of a little house for my dolls, so I told them: "I have always dreamed of a dollhouse. That's the big dream of my life," I tragically confessed to my parents when I was 10 years old. Hahaha. Of course, my pleas were to no avail and I never had a dollhouse.

Nowadays, when December starts the family starts to get organized. We put up the tree, paint the house and start planning what will be the Christmas and New Year's Eve dinner. Also, we get organized with the delivery of toys because even though we are all old men, there are children in the street who are very much looking forward to the arrival of the baby Jesus in the house.

To finish these memories, I need to say that December was the time when my parents stopped working and spent every day with us and that, that was the best gift we had.

This is my participation this week for our great friend @ericvancewalton's initiative: Memoir monday. If you want to participate, here's the link to the invitation post.

Thank you for reading and commenting. Until a future reading, friends

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ericvancewalton (79) 6 months ago

Christmas was really special back then wasn't it? It's almost as though you could feel the magic in the air the night of Christmas Eve. My brother and I would be so excited that we could barely sleep, a few years we were up by 3:30am. Our poor parents! Thanks for your contribution this week, Nancy. I hope you're having a good week.

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nancybriti1 (71) 6 months ago

I also hope you had a great weekend, a good trip and an unforgettable birthday celebration for your mother. Ah, I hope you can share photos with us of those special moments. Best regards

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Thank you! It was such a great celebration, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We ate, we laughed, and had some great talks. I have tons of pictures to share! I hope to get a post done by the end of this week. I hope you're having a good week!