Heart-to-heart with Renée, Brian and Andrée-Anne

The holiday season is of course synonymous with precious moments of sharing as people of all generations get together. Here are some personal memories that we share with great pleasure. May this holiday season bring you some of the same precious memories.

An immensely open door at Renée's

As a child, I used to get really excited on Christmas Eve when Mom would take us to bed. I would fall asleep quickly to make the time go by faster until I woke up to go to midnight mass. When we returned from mass, I remember the elaborate and very generous Christmas Eve menu that Mom and Dad had prepared. This menu included traditional Quebec dishes that made us salivate and whose smells will remain forever imprinted in my memory. My parents took advantage of this occasion to open the door of their home to all the single people among friends and family so that everyone could sit down, sing and feast until the early hours of the morning and spend a wonderful Christmas!

Brian's famous field hockey nights

A great field hockey player at heart, I spent my childhood Christmases surrounded by friends and neighbours at the local rink. Imitating Damphousse, Koivu and Recchi, I ran from right to left and at high speed: it was my National League. Following the departure of the Quebec Nordiques, the Montreal Canadiens inaugurated an important holiday tradition, that of playing three games in Western Canada against the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks. With the vacation, I would finally be allowed to watch my favourites late in the evening to fine-tune my tactics and feints for the next day. Although this tradition is no longer in place, the time has come for the Rocket's Harvey-Pinard, Belzile and Primeau to give a new generation of Laval fans, young and old, the chance to experience great emotions. The magic of sports, like the magic of the holidays, is formative and such experiences simply cannot be bought.

Andrée-Anne's big festive table

In my childhood, my fondest memories of the holiday season are of large family gatherings. On New Year's Eve, the ancestral home in the country where my mother and her eleven brothers and sisters grew up became our gathering place. These family gatherings were the best, with music, games, a festive meal and laughter. Time stood still as we all experienced moments of pure happiness. 

To help you organize your event contact the Simplifier team at Tourisme Laval.

Happy Holidays!