I haven't seen my mother for 3 weeks and although today, Christmas, I thought about maybe going to visit her and spend this date with part of the family, the truth is that I ended up exhausted after a long day of work in a bakery.
Working in a bakery in Venezuela is usually exhausting on Christmas Eve because here ham bread is part of the traditional Christmas dinner meal.
Well, anyway, I decided not to see my mother today, the truth is that I am spending it alone like any other day, however, for next week I do plan to receive the new year with her, spend time with her, bring her a gift and I also have a very important question to ask her....
I hope my mother will answer me with all sincerity, until today I had not asked myself this question and now the doubt I have makes me smile and I can hardly wait for her answer.
I imagine it, sitting with her on the couch, watching TV until suddenly, in a joking tone, I ask her the question::
"Hey mother, when my brothers and I were kids, did you know that we always discovered the hiding places of Christmas presents? Did you know that we would take the toys out of their packaging, play with them when you weren't around and then try not to leave any evidence?"
I have a feeling what my mother's answer will be, I'm almost sure she knew and likewise we all showed surprise, happiness and pretended a little not to give ourselves away.
When I remembered this it was inevitable that a smile did not appear on my face and I immediately sent a voice note to my younger sister, my biggest accomplice in the hunt for Christmas gifts, and she sent me many of these emoticons 馃き馃き馃き馃き馃き saying that she believes that our mother knew that we discovered the gifts but not that we even played with them....
She and I believe something just a little bit different, my mother will tell me soon.
It was nice to relive these moments of my childhood in which Christmas meant mainly moments of family togetherness, ingenuity of my older brother, who cut a dry tree branch, filled it with soap suds and placed green and red spheres on it and thus made our Christmas tree, music alluding to the season playing in the house during the whole month of December....
And, above all, hunting for new toys, no matter how simple they were, they made my siblings and me happy and, even though we had already discovered them, and many times even played with them, it was magical to wake up at Christmas and still be surprised, happy and enjoy them as if they had really been an unexpected gift.
Thank you for accompanying me. I wish you health, well-being and fulfillment.
This writing is inspired by 
Photograph of my property.