Alvarado
Christmas
p. Oscar 260, #1.
I always was, and still am, a Christmas guy. It has always been my favorite time of the year due to its charming and delightful characteristics: all the presents that I got on Christmas eve from all of my relatives and from "baby Jesus", the good times you spend with your family, and last but not least, the incredible food that a grandma with years of experience can cook. These are the reasons why I never spent a single Christmas at my home, or at any other place the same reasons that made ,,Christmas at grandmas an unofficial family tradition. I really dont know how it all started. I just remember that one day when I was old enough to think about something else besides games and toys, I suddenly woke up and realized: "Hey! How come we never spend Christmas with my dads family?" and from there I arrived at a conclusion that answered my question and made sense. My dads family was huge they were nine siblings, and half of them had at least two sons. They spent Christmas in my grandmothers small apartment, which was located in the capital city of Venezuela and could hold comfortably about six people. Needless to say, it wasnt very enjoyable for me to spend Christmas cramped in a small apartment where every adult, aunt, uncle, etc., was drinking and where all of my cousins present were either too young or too old for me. However, I have grown now, and I often think I should reconsider where Im spending Christmas again, perhaps now I could have a good time with all of the adults and the whole atmosphere of the place. Unfortunately, the fact that all my life Ive been spending Christmases at
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Oscar Alvarado
my mothers mothers house makes me really biased towards such reconsiderationand curiously enough, thats how Ive come to notice and understand how difficult it can be to let go of a long-followed tradition. Contrasting with the overcrowded and loud atmosphere mentioned in the previous paragraph, is that of my moms family located in a little town, forty-five minutes away from the main city. Although we celebrated Christmas in a similar manner, the atmosphere and the people couldnt differ more. My grandmothers house was huge; it had three stories, five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a huge living room where we always had our Christmas Eve dinner. Generally we would isolate the couches and other furniture to the side in order to put two long tables together not to fit the people, but to fit all of the fantastic and delicious food. My moms family wasnt half as big as that of my dads or half as loud. In addition, I got along great with all of my cousins from that side of my family since they were all more or less the same age as me. Usually we would spend the evening playing video games, or we would have funny things to talk about during dinner (with respect to our school and teachers), and after the presents were given out, we were all able to enjoy and share with each other. These were the things that made the atmosphere great, fun and enjoyable. Despite the atmospheres contribution, what really made ,,Christmas at grandmas a gem was the food and the presents. At ten oclock we would all sit in the table enjoy and one of the greatest meals of the year. It would consist of some type of exotic soup with all sorts of spices, followed by a main dish of sauced meat with salad along with one or two ,,Hallacas the main Venezuelan Christmas dish.
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Oscar Alvarado
Its made out of homemade corn dough surrounding chicken, vegetables, some type of sauce, raisins, etc. a delicious platter I must say. The food was so incredibly good that rarely did we have conversations while we ate all we did was just complement my grandmother and talk about how good the food was. After that we proceeded with the presents. On a corner of the house there was this huge Christmas tree where all the presents were located and on an average Christmas, there would be around forty to fifty of them. What made ,,giving presents special was the fact that everybody just sat down as a family in the huge living room, and that every member of the family had a single present for all the others. I ended up receiving many toys a couple of which coincidentally became my favorite. As I grew up, I also got a few video games, but eventually, everything just turned out to be nothing but clothes. Despite that, what really mattered was the way we enjoyed giving presents as a family. Such thing would never happen with my dads family: the presents were just given out on the next day and they (family members) didnt give much importance or feeling to it, perhaps because the majority of my dads family were grown ups and teenagers as opposed to my moms family where most of us where just kids. One last factor that added to my wonderful Christmas as a kid was our silly tradition of ,,Baby Jesus. The Venezuelan culture has this funny tradition that takes place after 12:00 am. of the 25th of December its basically our version of Santa Claus. What we or our parents do is say to the children that the newborn Baby Jesus is the one that brings them their Christmas present and that they are not allowed to see him because otherwise he wouldnt ,,pass by and deliver the presents. To follow that tradition, what my family did was tell us: "Come on children! Baby Jesus
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is on his way. You all must go upstairs!", and so we mindlessly did. Three minutes later we would come down and as if by magic all of our long awaited presents would be there. Then we would simply be extremely joyful for the rest of the night and the following morning. There was really nothing better than Christmas when I was a kid. All the positive feelings I experienced from spending time with my family, from the presents, the food, and even from the house itself, made Christmas my favorite time of the year. Of course I have grown now and certain things have changed. I now know that the whole "Baby Jesus" thing was a scam and that it was really my parents giving me the presents. I also dont get as excited about presents anymore and given my age now, I can probably have a good time with my older relatives. All of this could very well make me consider spending a Christmas with my dads family, but whatever the outcome is, Ill never forget those childhood Christmases and the great role my grandmothers house played in it.
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