My House Is a Really Active Place

By Geraldine Skewes

My house is a really active place. I live with my whole family, besides my granny and aunt Pina (she is my mom’s godmother). So, as you can see, we are a lot. My house is quite big, a two story house, so we don’t have problems with the space. When you enter in the house, the first thing you can feel is the smell of oranges from the dinning room; then, when you walk inside, in front of you, there is a lovely picture of Virgin Mary looking at you at the end of the corridor. Just before that, there is a mirror on the wall. It is very big, old, and beautiful; its placement is very useful, because you can check your look for the last time, every time before you go out. After the corridor, are the stairs and the door to the kitchen, and my granny is always there. She is the one who cooks, because she loves it; she makes of every meal something special. Every time I get home, I smell something she is cooking: sometimes it is fried and salty, and other times, it is sweet and warm, but it is always delicious. Aunt Pina is always with her there, sometimes setting the table, and others just taking a cup of tea, waiting for my granny to take another one together. She has always cold hands, but that has nothing to do with her personality. She is very warm. This is the place where all my family get together: it is always warm, and there is a TV, so we can watch news, or a football match all together. My brother Ronald prefers this place of the house to study; and I don’t know how, but he is always with one shoe only, and he has the sock at the middle of his other foot. My older sister, Inge, from time to time, comes down from upstairs to the kitchen, to get something to eat, or to my parents’ bedroom, to talk to my mom, or just to watch TV with us. My other brother, Richard, the youngest, is always playing on the computer here, and he plays very loud music. When I go to greet him, after I arrive home, I touch his hair and play with his little curls, until he sends me away; but I just laugh. At every place of the house, you can hear when somebody arrives. My younger sister, Barbra, always arrives with her boyfriend, Ivan, and they make jokes with my mom, after they greet her and my dad, who is working on the table of the dinning room. Every time he is using his laptop, he is listening to classic music. You may think you can not have a moment of peace and silence here, but that’s not true; when I get into my room, everything is quiet, and I can get a moment alone to do my stuff. I know that I am lucky because I can live with my whole family, and I have enough space for myself. So I would not trade them for anything, neither my big house nor my big loud family.