In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Getting Seasonal.”

The holiday season: can’t get enough of it, or can’t wait for it all to be over already? Has your attitude toward the end-of-year holidays changed over the years?

Having spent most of my childhood in Goa, I associate this season with warmth and cheer, joy and happiness lots of great food.  Christmas Carols and a host of feel-good emotions rush into my mind as I reflect on those years… from Stars and beautiful Cribs and Silent night and Joy to the World and roly poly Santas at every corner. Of course the fact that School was closing also added to the general feeling of well being!

After we left Goa, I have not celebrated X’Mas with the same fervor and so it was sheer nostalgia to go back to Goa about a year ago in December. The twinkling lights,  the decorated houses at every corner… I felt I had come home! This time with a new family…. I also had the once- in- a -lifetime experience of meeting many of my lovely classmates for a meal……… Unfortunately today the net is playing up and I am unable to upload  pictures clicked on that occasion .

We stayed at a lovely Resort … and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Lazy days stared with a walk to the beach which was almost deserted at that time of the day….. We would then pick on a place to visit and after the visit,  taste the local cuisine at one the many eating joints that dotted the countryside. Yummmm!!! South Goa was untouched by the commercial tourism and it was a pleasure interacting with the fun loving Goans….

A family holiday to me is togetherness personified and we did a lot of activities to that end…. starting with a dip in the pool on some mornings..  eating at nearby restaurants… to playing cards and  Dumb charades in the room….sharing music a great “binder” – as I read somewhere.. listening to the music your kids are listening to can open many windows and doors.

I must say,  we came away richer for our experience, that Christmas.

The serene beaches, the beautiful sea in many many moods….all were memories we could draw upon for a long long  time to come to recreate that feeling of togetherness….

Be It Goa or Pondicherry, Kerala or Shimla, Kanyakumari or Kashmir… family vacations have a way of creating bonds as we get busy creating memories…

I do not know what Santa has in store for me this year… as  a popular joke goes, it is  important that he gets my prayers right – I want to ask him for a Slim Me and a Fat Bank balance… Last year he had reversed the request !!

Merry Christmas, everyone ! And Happy holidays!!!