This Time of the Year...

I just looooove this time of the year! It is just soooo cold! I love it when the weather is chilly and cold! And most of all I love this time of the year ‘cause it’s CHRISTMAS!! I love Christmas as much as I love Divali. Both are times of such great happiness!
In school of course I liked both these hols for a different reason altogether: we would get our term breaks during each holiday! But before school closed we would have our annual day where each class would put up plays and dances for our parents. There would be a display of some really bad acting and dancing! But all the parents would clap, cheer and congratulate us on the wonderful show that we kids had put up for them.
There was a rule in our class that all the children in each class should be seen up there on the stage doing something or the other, no one was left out without a part. So I have played such diverse parts from a villager to a narrator to a witch! The story in which the last character appeared was made up by all of us when we were in the 6th class. Each of us contributed to the story and built it out of our own imagination, and also decided who would play which part. We had named it ‘Rose and the Rainbow Cat’! That was such a lot of fun! The majority of us played witches with a girl cast as ‘Rose’ and a boy cast as the ‘Rainbow Cat’. All of us ‘witches’ just relished our parts, because we got to act really nasty! Hee hee hee! [That’s wicked witches’ laughter for the uninitiated! :))] Also, we got to put on some really outlandish makeup!
We would also start singing Christmas carols and songs like ‘Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly’, ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Good King Wensceslas’, ‘Silent Night’, ‘Joy to the World’, ‘Jingle Bells’ and many others.
When I was in the 7th standard, instead of the traditional play and dance routine, we had an annual day where all the classes sang carols. My class sang ‘Twelve days of Christmas’. All of us were divided into 12 groups and my best friends P and S and I got the first verse to sing: “A partridge in a pear tree”. Boy! Was that fun or what!
And I remember one time when we were really young, my brother, cousin and I had written letters to Santa Claus detailing all that we wanted. On Christmas morning there were two miniature Christmas trees on our desks along with a book for me (drat!), and I don’t remember what my brother got. Along with all these was a letter stating how sorry Santa Claus was that he could not bring us what we wanted. My mother sure was clever (still is!)! But the disappointment of not getting what I’d asked for did not last for long as I was so very excited that Santa had actually come to our home and dropped off gifts!! :))
After school I sort of lost the excitement that Christmas brought along. But this year, I was out shopping for some essentials (the food, shampoo, toothpaste kind) when I saw these shops full of Christmassy stuff; streamers, Christmas trees of all sizes, bunting, paper lanterns and what not! It just got me so excited that I bought a few shiny red and green streamers and decorated our room here. I even hung some from the fan. Of course before that I marched my grandmother out of the room and made her sit in the drawing room for a while. She was quite bewildered by it all! But when she saw the decorations she got all teary-eyed, and not because they are that bad! :D She was just a bit overwhelmed because according to her, her room has never ever been decorated for whatever reason as long as she has stayed here. Well, as the dutiful granddaughter I’ve managed to bring some holiday cheer into my grandmother's life! LOL!!
And even my brother, who is ever so ready to run down anything I do, actually liked it!! Hehe! Here are some pics of how my room looks now. I think it just looks more cheerful! :)
Here is a card that my dear friend S had sent to me and I wish to share it with all of you.