This Christmas season, the staff at CollingwoodToday wish you the joy of the season. Throughout the day, our staff will give you a glimpse into what Christmas means to them. We hope you enjoy!
The strongest families are the ones who come together, hand in hand, and challenge the adversities of life.
My family and I have been very blessed in this life to always have a roof over our heads and food on the table, which can often be forgotten is not a right, but a privilege that many this holiday season are desperate for.
Although we have been very privileged thus far, my family was put to the test this year which made it hard for us to portray our commonly known extroverted traits.
After months of trying to pry a genuine smile out of our household with no avail, my mother, Elaine, knew she had to find some sort of spark to bring life back to our family.
My mom went to the Orillia SPCA and adopted a little fuzzy Calico kitten that we now call Gozie. She is named after ‘Gozer The Destructor’ from the 1984 blockbuster, Ghostbusters.
Gozie is more than the spark my family was in search of, she is a proverbial fire cracker!
Despite many destroyed phone and laptop chargers (hence her name), Gozie has done what was unthinkable at many points this year. Gozie has brought tons of smiles to our home, many episodes of uncontrollable laughter and continues to warm our hearts every day.
This is Gozie’s first holiday season and she has been like a little child all wired on sugar, counting down the days till Santa’s arrival. Gozie’s favourite part of the holiday’s have undoubtedly been the Christmas tree.
Gozie has collected over a half dozen ornaments from the tree and stored them safely inside her cat house.
The tree continues to get thinner every day as Gozie climbs inside for her daily game of hide and seek with my girlfriend, Tamara.
The anticipation for the big day has been too much for Gozie to handle as she is often found snooping around for presents in my mom’s closet.
We needed Gozie’s presence especially over the holiday season, to remind us of what we have to be thankful for. No matter how tough adversity can be on our daily lives, at the end of each day, we have each other.
As much as we needed Gozie, she needed us, too.
Close to 150,000 animals enter shelters each year, and even more heart wrenching is that some animals will wait month’s before they find a home.
When adopting an animal from a shelter, you make room for an animal to be rescued and have a chance to be given the greatest gift in the world: Family.
Tyler Evans is a part-time videographer and reporter for CollingwoodToday and our other Village Media sites.
