Celebration

The best holiday I ever had in my life was our second Christmas in Peterborough, Ontario. PepsiCo, one of the biggest beverage companies in the world, decided to give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of getting anything we wanted for Christmas. It was such a blessing because on the eve of Christmas 2016, a staff of five from PepsiCo, knocked on our door. As I opened it, each one carried so many gifts in their hands. In less than an hour, our living room, dining room and kitchen were full of presents! They gave us groceries which filled up our fridge and pantry, clothing (especially for the winter), small appliances, toys for all my three children and more than a dozen gift cards from different stores. They kept on giving us more, but we had to stop them from bringing in additional stuff as we did not have space anymore! They even gave us a notebook to list down what we still need that they forgot to provide us. However, we said they gave us more than enough and we were sincerely grateful. What took place was a wonderful moment because we got to receive a lot of love, support, and compassion. It was a huge surprise to be able to be given something so valuable regardless of our culture or who we were. The group from PepsiCo was genuinely moved to see the smiles and tears in our eyes. They were caring, attentive and so inspired to make us the luckiest family during that important season in our lives.

For other people, a holiday is a vacation or a break from work and everyday life, but for me, it is a celebration of love and kindness that you share with family and friends (new or old). My second Christmas in Canada was truthfully the best holiday in my life. How about you, what was the best holiday you ever had?