There's No Place Like Home...

What a great weekend… there truly is no place like home… welcomed with open arms and smiling faces… going home back to the states for Thanksgiving was great… actually great is an understatement… it was wonderful… it was like things were right back to normal as soon as I got there… it was great to lay in my own bed, watch my own tv, walk around my own home and be completely free… I got there on Thursday afternoon… walked in the back door, could smell the turkey cooking, potatoes roasting, jollof rice burning on the stove, and a mixture of other great smells… my parents were so happy to see me, more than I expected, but I’d missed them a lot, so the feeling was quite mutual… slowly, the rest of the siblings and family members trickled in… the sisters and boyfriends, the brothers and wives and children, before long we had a full house… and it was great… great food, great wine and great company… I couldn’t ask for anything else in that moment… being with my family was all I needed. For a bit, I did feel like I was missing out on so much by living in London, but as I interacted with my siblings and parents, it became more and more evident that they were proud of me for doing what I’m doing and being successful in London… it reaffirmed that I made the right decision to move to London… but sometimes, you still can’t help but feel like you may be missing out… but as I hear them all describing when they are coming to London next month of their way to Nigeria and how we’ll have so much fun when they come to visit me, it gave me something more to look forward to…. By like 7pm, I could barely keep my eyes up, tired and delirious from lack of sleep and jet lag, I was struggling… got up crazy early the next morning to do the black Friday shopping things…. Madness in all the stores my sister and I went to… but needless to say, we got some pretty good deals!!!

I was having a discussion with my dad about Christmas… he told me that in America, they don’t really celebrate Christmas in the same ways as other parts of the world, that its too commercialized in the states… and if I didn’t go to Nigeria 2 years ago for my first Christmas in Nigeria and didn’t living in London now, I would have blatantly disagreed with him… although I do have to admit, I notices as I was growing older in the states, that the spirit of Christmas was not as joyful as it was when I was much younger… I just thought that was the natural progression, that as you got older, you got more serious and paid less attention to holidays and things of that nature… I almost let that rob me of my Christmas spirit…. But some how I always managed to find that spirit and spread it along to my sibling and parents, whether they wanted it or not… when I was growing up I remember Christmas as being so exciting and joyous… huge Christmas trees, decorations everywhere, waking up at 6am to open gifts, having breakfast with the family, watching the parade and going to church later in the day… then going around to other family and friends’ homes or having them come visit at our home… lots of children running around in their new clothes and showing off the new gifts they just got, lots of Christmas lights, good food, great company and just happiness everywhere… I do miss those Christmas days… I do miss the good old days… but as I spent my first Christmas in Nigeria 2 Christmas’ ago, I am eager to go back… of course Nigerians know how to celebrate, but the Christmas spirit is still well and kicking in Naija… even in London, its clear that the holiday season is here… Christmas lights and decorations all thru central London, illuminating the streets and never letting you forget that Christmas is right around the corner… anyways, maybe all of this is just my experiences, but I feel that as I get older, that the experience of Christmas is just much different…