♫ Tis the season to be Jolly Fa la la la la la la la la ♫
I’m not trying to be a grinch or anything, but the Christmas season is not my favourite. At least when it comes to Christmas preparation. For most, the Holidays are great. You get to put up lights and make the house look all fancy with decorations. Bake cakes and cookies and have lots of yummy food. Sure, those aspects are nice, but at my house, I think a little too much effort is put into this holiday.
What Christmas means to me:
- Cleaning windows
- Painting over all the rooms
- Tedious curtain shopping in town with mother
- Ironing all the new curtains to hang up
- Washing previous curtains
- Dusting, vacuuming, mopping
- Rearranging rooms
- Cleaning every kitchen cabinet
- Polishing all wooden surfaces
- Realising I live in a family of hoarders when I see all the junk we have while I’m cleaning
- Folding all the clean laundry
- Painting the gates outside
- Washing the yard
- Peeling pounds of sorrel so my dad can make sorrel juice (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NniI_3BUMlM/TO2Q2MboPHI/AAAAAAAAAqw/BK1WktOacL8/s1600/sorrel+drink.jpg)
- Cooking and baking
- Decorating
If the house does not look immaculate then I can be sure to be in for an earful from mother. Yikes! It gets really annoying to have to repeat the same pattern year after year all for the sake of one bloody day. Sure, I love Christmas day. I love running downstairs to see presents under the tree and sharing the moments opening them with my family. Of course, I love that it’s one time we eat together as a family and enjoy each others company. However, to drive ourselves insane cleaning is not my idea of enjoying the holidays.
My attitude towards it all this year
I wish I can fast forward to Christmas day itself. To when I sneak downstairs before everyone wakes up to see how many presents have my name on it and if it looks like “Santa” got me what I wished for (never does -_- ). I love the ham sandwiches we enjoy for breakfast: freshly baked homemade bread and mom’s ham with lettuce and tomatoes in between, also this thing we Trinis call “chow chow” (even though the label says otherwise http://uncommoncarib.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chow1.jpg), downed with her delicious hot chocolate made from pure cocoa (yay for Trinidad having the richest cocoa in the world lol) that I drink in my special mug. If dad’s working, then waiting for him to arrive home so we can all have lunch together (my favourite part). Mmmm, the turkey, ham, pastelles (http://caribbeantrading.com/wp-content/uploads/06-pastelles.jpg), lasagne, Spanish rice, callalloo, roast pork and all the other things my family cooks. Competing with my dad to see who can eat more (yup, time to get out my fat pants so I can devour an entire turkey leg haha). Listening to sweet Parang music and having family come over. Just relaxing and enjoying being together… to me, that’s what the holidays should be about. The family time (but presents are fun too lol).
However, before I can actually get to all the nice stuff, I gotta help make sure the house is in order *sigh*. Cleaning is so not my thing, but not much of a choice in the matter at the moment. I guess all this prep work is what makes Christmas day worth it at my house. Or at least that’s the lie I’m selling myself right now as I power through it all. Well, should call it a night since another long day is ahead of me.
thatborderlinegirl 
