Home for the holidays
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Written by Anjali
If you want to know one thing about our mom, it’s this, she loves holidays and festivals. She goes all out. We grew up celebrating many holidays and traditions from around the world. Maggie mom wanted us to understand our Hindu roots so we celebrate Holi, Dashain, and Tihar and every other festival under the sun. There are a lot of festivals in Nepali culture. It was also important to her to celebrate a few traditions from her own childhood. Have you ever seen Halloween at our house? Mom turns the entire house into a haunted house and we go trick or treating room to room. It’s the spookiest thing you’ve ever seen and oh so much fun. I think the neighbors think we must be a little crazy.
That brings me to another holiday favorite, CHRISTMAS! A bunch of us older siblings are studying and working in Kathmandu. It’s hard to be away from home. This is a big transitional time for us. Growing up you dream about being on your own, being independent and then the time comes and you realize how much you miss the little things about home. So 8 of us made a plan, got on a 23 hour bus and decided over winter break to surprise our mom and siblings for the holidays.
The bus ride from Kathmandu is long and bumpy. It’s a night bus so we slept on and off. At the 20th hour, we were ready to be off that bus and were just a few blocks away to the comfortable territory of our hometown. We started making plans to see friends, catch up with our siblings, and plan our Secret Santa.
As we got ready to pull up to the bus station I realized the way I feel about this home of ours is so profound, it’s hard to put into words. We hopped in a tuk tuk and eagerly awaited walking through the gate to the hugs, the tears bubbling inside of us. Everyone was so surprised when the 8 of us walked through the gate. Everyone cried with glee, especially Mom. The vacation was exactly what we all needed. Home-cooked dal. Our dogs Nacho and Nova. The familiar sound of the little kids waking you up running around at 6 in the morning. I used to complain about how they wake us up so early but as soon as I moved away from home I realized just how much I miss this. We all reached just in time to help our mom decorate, and gear up for the celebration. Everyone gets into the spirit and has fun during the day full of surprises.
Time is of the essence and you don’t want to waste a single moment when you’re home. You know, our family is now all over the world. There are still some siblings that we didn’t see for this vacation and it is just the worst feeling. Nevertheless, they are missed every single day. We sent gifts and our love to them overseas. Chilly nights but warm hearts, we got to share what we all missed on our separate journeys.