Our last summer went by very quickly. By the time a new fall
arrived, half of my house was literally packed. Every day a new object was
disappearing, swallowed by a new big brown box.
I was still attending the day care and my sister Maia was
improving her ability to bother me. If I was kissing her – by the way, I am the
one in the family who spends three quarters of the day kissing and hugging
everybody– Maia, in response, was pulling my hair. Was I cuddling her? She was definitively
kicking me, somewhere in between my face and stomach.
Apparently, one can tell what the character of a person is
going to be since a very young age. Since then, in fact, Maia has not changed
at all. Ok! Of course she is taller now and she is able to speak – you can
imagine how far an argument between us can go– but still, she wouldn’t miss any
opportunity to get me in trouble.
Actually, you know what my parents did? They enrolled her at
karate! Could you believe that? It is like giving a gun to a killer, like
playing tennis at the wii using a real racket and ball! Three years ago they
registered me at karate to increase my self-confidence. Three years later they
registered Maia as well, I guess, to decrease my self-confidence because it
went to high. Who knows?
Anyhow, as per the autumn, I don’t recall me piling red,
yellow, brown leaves back there, like we do now. We were indeed missing that
fun we usually have in Canada jumping on a little hill of leaves - which my dad
collected very carefully - with the only intent to spread them all around
again. It’s so fun, isn’t it?
Our last Christmas was kind of magic. Since then, I haven’t
had any more the opportunity to see Santa in person delivering a bag full of
toys. I couldn’t see his face, but we did see his back while leaving our gifts
beside the fireplace. Everyone was screaming, I don’t understand why, but I
guess he must be very passionate about his job, considering he didn’t turn
despite the noise.
In Canada it is different. You really cannot see him. He
apparently arrives with Rudolph at night while we are sleeping. Since we don’t
have a fireplace here, Mom bought a key he can use to come in, rest a little
bit, have some milk and cookies and, most important, leave the gifts.
Before Christmas, after a couple of years analyzing the
situation, I was finally able to explain to Maia and my Mom why he arrives at
night here, and we get his presents on December 25th. The theory is pretty
easy: he leaves the pole and travels toward East. He indeed arrives in Europe
on December 24th and, by the time he reaches Canada it’s already the 25th.
Logic, no? I think it is a smart way to go around the globe.
The last thing I remember of that December was a party we
had altogether. So many people were there! I was not sure anymore what we were
celebrating. Being a kid, I was waiting only for two things: gifts and cakes.
Finally that moment arrived.
You know what
happened? They started calling me for some family pictures. Now, there were I
am not sure how many people there. I had to pose for at least ten different
pictures, while looking at two wonderful cakes that nobody was allowed to
touch!
After the third picture, I started posing pretending to be a
dinosaur, a superhero, a monster. That was fun to me…a little bit less to my
father who was trying to hold me still!
Suddenly, everybody was pointing at the cake. One
represented a “little house in Canada”, and the other a Canadian flag. I
remember I was wondering if that cake was going to be our house from then on.
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