Only the picture is A I generated.
My best memories are that of many Christmases spent during childhood. It was always so much fun for the children of the family because it was a time to gather in our grandparents' house, my paternal grandparents. And every festive season, I would travel to the village with my parents and siblings, my cousins from different towns and cities would come to spend Christmas as well. It was a family tradition that all the children and the grandchildren of the family always gathered at Christmas. I really never asked why but I guess it's to keep the family knit together and also to keep our ageing grandparents company. I looked forward to it, that was all that mattered.
Every other member of the family also looked forward with excitement, so Christmas was the union of the whole family in one place, to celebrate the most important season of the year. We would organise a lot of fun activities like drama, cultural dances, fashion shows, singing, just to entertain our neighborhood on Christmas Eve. As a very large extended family, we would gather for rehearsals every evening, after dinner, each eager to play one role or the other in these fun activities.
On Christmas Eve, we would showcase our cultural dance moves, going from house to house, especially around our own neighborhood. Every house we entered, we danced and then we were given money in appreciation. At the end we always had so much money to share amongst us. Then in the evening, people from the same neighbourhood would come to watch our drama, our singing and our fashion display, unique to us alone, because we were from the township and did ours with elegance and style. Then they gave us more money for our efforts. We were always very rich during this period and these proceeds would be used to purchase bangers for the New Year's Eve.
As the children were entertaining, the adults while watching with glee, would be roasting goats and cows and making barbecues, in preparation for the D-day. We would have lots of meat to eat. The atmosphere was always supercharged with merriment. These childhood memories are the best memories of my life. I remember them with so much nostalgia.