I could sing every word of every Christmas Carol; I helped my friends decorate their trees, ate ham for dinner at their homes and, as I grew older in Kankakee by the Sea, went to midnight mass with my friends at Saint Patrick's church.
Sometimes we would help the older girls tear stems off leaves that the boys had gathered from trees to be mixed with rice for dinner.
"I grew up as an athlete and I'm definitely a waterwoman," she said, "and I want him to love all those things, too". Now, the 6-year-old has been known to climb up coconut trees or catch fishes to eat for dinner.
They threw a stick and knocked it out of the tree, that's what we had for dinner.
Ms. Mattera imagined "my 10-foot-tall Christmas tree with lots of people over for dinner," she said, but Mr. Werberg was not enthusiastic about the open layout.
And an early-evening game of tennis on a town court will whet the appetite for dinner in the tree-lined garden of La Genestière, as the southern sky fades from blue to rosé to black.
Do something for someone who won't be having a special Christmas - place a gift under a wishing tree, have an elderly neighbour over for dinner giving to others is always a good thing.
That night, his uncle brought the family outside for dinner under the fig tree in the back yard.
They lived on a farm and ate the bark off trees and once killed a neighbor's cat for dinner.
"I can't imagine sitting under the Christmas tree and opening presents or sitting at the table for dinner.
