Ive always loved Christmas. Wen I was younger it was a time to go to the village, hook up with cousins I hadn’t seen all through the year, eat lots of food, have uncles dote on me and tell me wat a wonderfully bright child I am and generally be lazy. I, my sister and my twin cousins used to pretend we were The Famous Five. It took us a while to realize that it wasn’t just a name- they were actually five. But that didn’t keep us down for too long. We bullied my cousins dog until we could make it do basically all we wanted. We had found our fifth member. but unlike our namesakes in the novel series, we didn’t solve mysteries; we created them!! One that m sure no one ever resolved was the question of y lil kids are so annoying. Perfect example: my big cousin had a bad car accident and had a big wound on his arm. My twin cousins and I would go to him, poke the wound insistently and say in that irritatingly squeaky loud voice kids have “ is it paining you??”. Now wen I think about it I wonder how he could stand it. I would prob have grabbed our grubby hands and yelled “ off course it hurts u cretins. You think having a big hole in your hand is normal???”
Anyhoo…where was i?? aha. Christmas. It was fun. We used to have a family day on the 28th. The lil kids would sing and act a play to the delight of the older cousins, uncles and aunties (well, I certainly hope it was delight and not despair cos we murdered many a Shakespeare play in my day. Imagine a six yr old bumbling her way thru the famous Hamlet speech);and then my really big uncle would hand out crisp Five Naira notes in immaculate envelopes. Sigh!!! Those were the days.
Then little by little things started changing. The Grinch came into town. Older cousins stopped coming, giving flimsy excuses like work, stress and familial responsibilities; we grew older and had to do more and more around the house (damn that blasted housekeeper fairy. She quit and we haven’t seen her since) and suddenly instead of a time away to rest and play…we had a time away to work and be stressed. Talk about the end of innocence. Staying in lagos wasn’t even that great. We’d just sit at home and eat and eat. Go for 9o’clock service by 12 and come baack by 12.30. spend the rest of the day sleeping. Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Now its back…..
Anyhoo…where was i?? aha. Christmas. It was fun. We used to have a family day on the 28th. The lil kids would sing and act a play to the delight of the older cousins, uncles and aunties (well, I certainly hope it was delight and not despair cos we murdered many a Shakespeare play in my day. Imagine a six yr old bumbling her way thru the famous Hamlet speech);and then my really big uncle would hand out crisp Five Naira notes in immaculate envelopes. Sigh!!! Those were the days.
Then little by little things started changing. The Grinch came into town. Older cousins stopped coming, giving flimsy excuses like work, stress and familial responsibilities; we grew older and had to do more and more around the house (damn that blasted housekeeper fairy. She quit and we haven’t seen her since) and suddenly instead of a time away to rest and play…we had a time away to work and be stressed. Talk about the end of innocence. Staying in lagos wasn’t even that great. We’d just sit at home and eat and eat. Go for 9o’clock service by 12 and come baack by 12.30. spend the rest of the day sleeping. Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Now its back…..
Comments
Glad to see that you fnally made it despite your doubts ( unwarranted as it turns out) about your writing skills.
Loved the posts.
maybe it;s cos i;m a little nuts about you.
I'll mention your post when next i blog.
See?
I'm always there for you.
SO when does this kiss re-happen?
Ah, okay, I did not mean to interrupt o. Make I carry my leg commot una room, oh...
hahaha