Lelde`s+page

       This year I celebrated Christmas together with my family. I was very glad that Christmas time was provided with thick layer of snow. I think if there is snow it inspires Christmas feelings. We began preparing for Christmas beforehand making gingerbread dough together with my mother. I think this celebration is unthinkable without the smell of gingerbread, because this smell create a special mood for this celebration. The following Christmas activity was to go to the forest and choose the most suitable and the most beautiful Christmas tree. When the tree was carried home we started to decorate it. Afterwards I, my mother and sister began to cook the suppers of the celebration. We cooked grey peas, sauerkraut, baked pies, gingerbreads and other delicacies. When all works were done, the family gathered together. There are traditions in each family how to celebrate this quiet evening. We are 7 in our family. I have 1 sister who is 2 years younger than me and 2 brothers. One is younger and 1 is older than me. At Christmas other relatives come to visit us so this year we were 12 people around the Christmas tree. Our family spends the evening around the tree reciting Christmas poems, getting and giving gifts, singing Christmas song. There were light candles on the tree. Everybody chose one candle for himself and wanted it to burn the longest. There is a belief that whose candle burns the longest will live the longest. And while the candles were burning each of us spoke about how they felt and what they could change in themselves. 
 * How I celebrated Christmas **

  Lelde Prūse