What makes you happy during Christmas? Isn’t it delightful to see the happy faces of each and everyone because of your simple act of sharing and giving? That is why you are happy because others are happy because of you.

A week before Christmas I usually go shopping on my own to buy presents that I would like to give to my cousins. I already familiarized their likes and wants so it wasn’t at all difficult to find the perfect gift for them. I started wrapping them in a unique way such that I placed small notes outside each box containing riddles describing the gift per se. Therefore, before opening their present, they had to read the riddle aloud and answer it. If, however, they failed to give the right answer, they had to perform a dance or song in front the family crowd before they could unwrap their present.

That’s not the only gift I prepared for them. I also included Christmas Sweets but wrapped in a separate box. They supposedly are going to be my token of appreciation for thanking them for the love and care they’ve shown me all these years. There’s nothing overwhelming than having the opportunity to show my gratitude.

Finally, feeling relieved, I gave them their presents on Christmas Day. They’re intelligent people so they were able to guess the riddles and didn’t experience the embarrassment of painstakingly performing a dance or song in front of the family. They also opened the other boxes containing Christmas Sweets. Altogether we gorge to those Christmas Sweets and welcomed another Christmas celebration.   

It was indeed something I'm proud to share about because not only did I give presents but also because I felt the reward of great content and happiness when I genuinely shared.

Last summer we had a sleep over in our house, which consisted of me, my sister and our four cousins, six in total. It was like a slumber party. Although we had other sleep over which were spontaneous, this one‘s a lot better, unexpected and less boring.

First we all helped each other set the table for dinner. After dinner, the first two arranged the chairs, the other two cleared the dining table and the other two again, which includes me, washed the dishes. I know that my mom liked it that way because all she would do then was to watch the TV.  Now… now… I know you may think it’s a common scenario and its getting a little bit boring but I tell you it’s just the start.

After 5 hours or so, we prepared our sleeping bags in the living room along with the midnight snacks consisting of chips and cookies. One of my cousins refused to join us in playing indoor games and without a word, decided to sleep earlier than us. We decided to do the same after finishing off the snacks since it was not fun at all if the group was incomplete. At 3 AM we were awakened by the loudest alarm clock set by my cousin who slept earlier and while we were all about to rub our eyes we felt something soft and smooth in our hands. I turned on the lights using my right hand while holding the “thing” in my left. I saw that each of us had Christmas Sweets in our hands. My cousin planned it all along to feel grumpy about the whole sleep over to make it less obvious that she was going to surprise us with Christmas Sweets. We stayed up late and ate our Christmas Sweets while she was telling us that the reason behind the surprise was that she was hired for a job. We congratulated her and kept thanking her for her treat. All in one sleep over things got confusing, surprising and exciting. The Christmas Sweets made our sleep over a more delightful and special event of our lives.