In addition to Diwali and other Hindu holidays, my mother somehow decided to include Christmas among our annual festivities while my sister and I were growing up. My mother had lived her formative years in Goa and to her celebrating Christmas meant reliving some of her happy memories rather than a religious festivity. She would bake an enormous cake and we even had a tree sometimes (not a real one but a plastic one). We would make cards under our mother's supervision and even hung stockings above our beds. My father was a willing participant as long there was a cake waiting at the end of all the gift-wrapping.
We spent quite a few Christmas vacations in Goa partying on one of those fun cruises. What I remember most is that every year on Christmas our parents would wrap our gifts in bright red and green paper. Whenever Christmas is around the corner I remember those festive moments and the bright colors it brought.
Today I am miles away from home, its the start of winter in Ohio and everything is gray. The trees have been stripped off their leaves. But among the bramble when I spotted this tiny bough of green and red the spirit of Christmas came back to me. Taking the picture was quite an experience since I had to try to eliminate quite a lot f the drying thrush around the pretty little piece of glowing foliage and the red berries. It was fun as always.
Happy Holidays!
