"Looking Back"||Four Years Ago On My Best Christmas Experience||By @rhema01

INTRODUCTION
Hello friend, reader's,and my fellow steemians,it's been a while, hope you are all doing well.

Before I share with you all an original story of a special period of time in my life in the past

This story is about my personal best christmas experience,I would love to ask you a question.
What is christmas really all about?
What those the birth of Jesus Christ represent?

To me christmas is all about love, showing and sharing the perfect love of christ to everyone around you,and his birth represents the time of salvation and repentance

Looking back 4years ago 25th December 2017,which was my best christmas experience so far.
You may be wondering what made it so special,well I got to visit the birth place of my mom for the very first time (Ohafia)which is in the eastern part of Nigeria (Abia). Due to me growing up in the Northern part of Nigeria (Abuja)I had only visited my Dad's place occasionally but never my mom's place, when I heard that for that year we would be visiting my mom's place I was beyond excited, Because I would get the chance to see my relatives, and experience their amazing culture

THE JOURNEY

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Before we left Abuja for Abia on the 24th of December 2017,we went out shopping and got gift for each relative that will be coming back that Christmas.
The journey from Abuja to Abia was an exciting but stressful one, it was an eight hours road trip with few stops for refreshments and toilet brakes,we embarked on the journey at 12:30pm.
During the trip we crossed different states including
Nassarawa
Kogi
Benin
Anambara e.t.c

I even got to see the popular Niger river as shown above, it was an amazing sight to behold and it made me appreciate the birth of christ even more.

OUR ARRIVAL
It was at 9:pm we arrived Ohafia Abia state,I was beyond trilled to finally be here, a place I had never experienced before,we where warmly welcomed by our relatives, but the highlight of my arrival was seeing my widowed grandmother who was in tears and overwhelmed with joy to see us.

DINNER
After being showed to our various rooms in the large family house and freshning up we gather to eat dinner together as a complete family for the very first time, at that large table sat my parents,my siblings,my uncle's,my aunt's,my cousins,my grandmother e.t.c
I and my siblings where introduced being the only new faces at the table.
That nite ended with it being the very best nite I had experienced, it was getting pretty late so we the younger children that where still at the table with granny where getting sleepy,so granny decided to pause her instreasting stories for another nite,she kissed and blessed us goodnight.

CHRISTMAS

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Christmas had always been for me the highlight of the year, everything is different during this period, people are at their happiest even the atmosphere changes. Today being the 25th of December 2017was the day I would experience the whole Ohafia christmas culture and tradition.
We started that morning with one of my favorite Christmas tradition (Gift exchanging),after exchanging gifts here are a few things I received
Toys
Picture frames e.t.c
And my personal favorite from my granny a book (The power of a praying child).

CULTURE

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One of the things I have been looking forward to is the traditional Ohafia dancers.
We left for the general christmas show being held at the general Ohafia council hall ground
On arrival it was in full motion with different traditional rulers from all over the eastern part of Abia state being present.
The Ohafia youth dancers took the stage dazzling everyone with their fire dancing tricks, also the traditional mascurade dancers took the stage,they where the best, their trick was like nothing I had ever seen before,they balanced a sculpture on their head while dancing to the redeem of the beat as shown above . On getting back home we all where tried, I rushed to granny to share with her all about it due to her absence at the event, I was really happy and fulfilled with the occasion,the rest of the week went by swiftly.

THE WEEK
After the festivities, we laid low for a while and just enjoyed each other's company but on the 31th of December 2017 everything and everyone where still in high spirits so we decided to go swimming at the neighboring village local stream, on getting there we discovered it was closed to visitors at that time of the year,we explained we where from the neighboring village but they refused thinking it was all a bluff, My parents made a call,and after an hour of wait granny arrived and was immediately recognize, they apologize and let of through,we had an amazing time playing, interactive, and swimming.
The rest of the week went by a little to quickly than we all would have hoped for.

OUR DEPARTURE
We left Ohafia for Abuja on the 4th of January 2018😭,I was in tears while saying my goodbyes to all my relatives especially granny we both huged,she kissed me on the forehead and blessed me, we departed early at 5:20am for enugu to catch our flight back to Abuja due to the lack of an airport in the state.we made it just in time for the 40 minutes flight back to Abuja,I was in tears all the way back.

CONCLUSION

That Christmas till date is still my very best not just because of the gifts and the culture of my mom's place Ohafia but also because of the quality time with family.
Special appreciation to

@focusnow
@samuel20
@steemalive