A Christmas Story: Almost a perfect celebration.

Childhood Christmas memories are the best for me because I have celebrated Christmas the same way since I became an adult, the family is always together and all I do is sleep and eat as much as I can because mom's meals taste extra special. It usually seems like Santa usually gives her a secret recipe for her cooking because it is Christmas, I always don't want to miss her meals no matter how far I am away from home.

As terrible as Christmas was as a child, I still had the best experience during those days. I was born into an average family talking about my parent's financial status and some incidents occurred that kicked us from average to zero.

How it happened, the turnaround.

Dad went in search of greener pasture abroad and we lost contact for quite some time, it affected us because everything the family owned was sold to make the mission possible with the hope of joining him after a few years. We reconnected again and tried making the journey but it failed and we lost connection again because the Internet or smartphone weren't existing. Only wealthy people own phones so communicating was a terrible problem.

Mom was back to square one and started from scratch trying to raise me and my brothers, it was a hell of a journey to recovery because she wasn't getting any support and our problem started with accommodation.

During this period, every Christmas looked like the usual day because we stayed indoor to prevent people from knowing that we weren't celebrating in our home.

The Christmas vibe is always different for kids because you see every kid going around with their friend from one house to another getting gifts and it is best to hide yourself if your family can't avoid a Christmas dress because such a kid might end up as a laughing stock among their peers.

We were always indoors during some Christmas celebration because mom had too many bills to pay with her little income, first it started with getting accommodation because we lived in the church environment and that took her a whole year's savings to accomplish that.

We were home for that whole year and returning us to school was the next thing so I was very understanding and was able to distract my siblings from any celebration going on. It went like that for almost four years and mom was finally getting okay since she started the catering job, we always have enough food and she earns well because she has magical fingers that make party food extra delicious.

She became very popular that churches and school even book her service for anniversaries, graduation, and end of the year party, we were up and running again because she now has a group of people who works with her and they cover lots of job over the weekend and few during the week.

She got a bigger apartment because the old one was nothing to write about and mom promised to celebrate Christmas that year and we were looking forward to it.

There was no sign of Christmas and mom wasn't saying anything so we thought it would be the regular Christmas but it would be better because we now had a TV set and that should keep us alive since there would be movies to watch.

On that faithful day, mom came home with a chicken and some Christmas decorations, she said we will be going to the popular Oshodi market to buy clothes the next day. We were excited, we were still kids the last time we celebrated Christmas and the four years without celebration looked like we weren't existing.

We went to the market as promised, we got shoes, wristwatches, and clothes. At that point we knew that we were ready to run the area with the new dresses, I had this boy I wanted to brag to because he is always oppressing me with his shoes that has light. I got a mature one without the light just wanted him to know that we are richer, it was the kid in me speaking.

I started feeling feverish when we got back from the market so mom got me drugs thinking it was the stress but turned out to be a serious illness, Christmas came and I was still in the recovery process. Mom made lots of food and drink that she shared with the neighbors, my siblings also went out in their new clothes while I was lying down on the bed unable to eat or move around. The aroma from the fried meat made me throw up severally because I can't stand fried foods whenever I am ill, the celebration passed and I had to wait for another year.

I felt really bad because I almost had a perfect Christmas after a long break but life had its way of doing things and here I am today still celebrating Christmas and that should make me happier because not everyone has received the grace you and I are having today.

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Note: The lead image was made by me using Canva App.