Tis the season to be jolly

I love Christmas. This was my moms favorite holiday. As soon as December came around we began preparations in my house to make sure Christmas day was absolutely the best day of the year. I come from a pretty big family and every Christmas everyone always came together at my parents apartment in the Bronx.

My parents and I came to this country from Guyana South America where Christmas is always a festive occasion. Everyone looked forward to the meal that was being prepared. My mom was the best cook and I was her attentive pupil. She would soak raisins, currants and prunes in rum for weeks at at time in order to have the perfect black cake for everyone to enjoy. Black cake is actually a really tasty version of the traditional holiday fruit cake. It's dark color, achieved from the brown sugar that's melted and poured into the finished batter is why its called black cake. The rum that's poured over the finished cake and allowed to soak in doesn't hurt it either.

My aunts always made sure to bring all of the Tupperware they owned in order to take home some of the tasty dishes that were prepared. We would all sit around and laugh, eat and commiserate about life and how good it was. My mom passed away 18 years ago; 3 weeks before her favorite holiday. The family no longer gets together as we did when she was alive. That tradition came to an end when she passed. We did try one year to keep it going but it just was not the same.

I now have a family of my own that I make some of my moms creations for them. My black cake is just as good as hers. I know this because my American born husband is always looking forward to having it on Christmas day. This year is really special to me because my daughter is at the age when she can enjoy her presents and start to learn what the holiday is all about. I already have my fruit soaking in rum and I'm going over Christmas dinner menu in my head. Its just going to be my husband, myself and my two babies not the Hugh gathering I was once a part of.

However its still going to be a special day to me because I had a mother who always made it a special time because she embodied what the season was all about; the celebration of life and the person who made life possible by giving us his son.