I love Christmas. Itâs one of my favourite holidays of the year and it was a great experience to celebrate it with my second family in another country đ¨đŚ. Some traditions are the same, but there are also some differences, like unwrapping the presents in the morning and the Christmas dinner. But let me start at the beginning:
On Christmas Eve, my family and I went to church in the late afternoon. Desmond and I had to be there earlier, because we played some Christmas songs with a group of musicians and the choir was singing đś. I was playing the violin and Desmond the guitar. In total there were three guitar players, five violins, a bass player, a pianist and about 20 people in the choir. I really enjoyed playing with them and it sounded very good đ! We played songs like: I Saw Three Ships, Holy Night and Bethlehemâs Child. The church was packed and my friends Larissa and Cassandra came too. There also was a play for the children. Larissaâs sister and Cassieâs sister were part of it. They were an angel and a shepherd and very cute. After church we went home and had a delicious Christmas dinner. Diana is part Italian and they usually donât eat meat on Christmas Eve. This is why we had pasta and fish. It was very good đ! We also had homemade eggnog from Tara. Iâve never had eggnog before, but I like it! For those, who donât know what eggnog is, itâs a drink made with milk, sugar, cream, eggs and sometimes alcohol. After supper we sat together for a long time and played some games đ˛.
The next day everyone got up early and we opened the presents đ!!! They were under the tree and in our stockings. And I got some too, for example a purple sequin cushion and a mug, which is my absolute favourite. Itâs white and it says Blogging Day in golden font on it. I love drinking tea in the winter and I used it almost every day so far. I didnât buy any presents for my family, but I want to invite them to a trampoline park in the next few weeks. And I made two big origami stars, a red and a yellow one. After opening all the presents we had breakfast: bagels with cheese, bacon and egg. In the late afternoon, all of us went to a family dinner. There, we had more food, like homemade pasta, gnocchi, filled peppers and much more. Then everybody was full đ! David, Sam, Patrick, their cousin Amanda, and I went in the basement and played some games, like Shit Happens and (later in the night) Eckolo with the whole family. My parents sent it for Christmas and everybody loves it. We played for a long time and then I played some songs on my violin: Carol of The Bells (a rock version) and Who Wantâs To Live Forever by Queen. The family really enjoyed it.
On Boxing Day, Diana, Sam and I went shopping đ. We picked up Amanda and went to the dix30, but it took us more than an hour to get there, because of the traffic. Anyways, we had a great day and there were many sales! We went to different stores and bought some things: Amanda got a hat at Urban Outfitters and Sam and I bought each a ring at Pandora. It was packed in the store and we had to wait outside, in the cold, for more than 15 minutes, but in the end it was totally worth it! After our shopping tour we had supper at Five Guys and Sam and Amanda showed me Mr. Puffs, a really good place for pastries đ°đŠ
