IslanderView Digital Magazine January 2018 | Page 7

her no. I think because he loved her cooking as much as the next person. Customs: Our family honored Chamorro customs such respecting elders. We had to show respect to our elders wherever we were. If we did not Nginge’ our elders, they would tell on us. Respecting our el- ders was enforced by our dad even with among us as siblings. I was the eldest and held responsible for younger sibling’s actions so everyone understood I had some “authority”. zines and make it and not surprising- There was always a lot of manginge’ - ly, she got the recipe dead on… sur- ing during the Christmas season! prisingly awesome and delicious! On- ly frustrating thing is she would not Traditions: While we practiced many make it again! :( holiday traditions passed on to our Another tradition included getting parents, our mom also added her ready for Christmas ma ss. When we own. Many of them was through her were younger, we always celebrated menu and cooking. She did not grow Christmas with the morning mass on up in a Chamorro food only house- Christmas day. As we got older, we hold, like our dad did so she was hap- started celebrating on Christmas Eve. py to experiment and add things to As we married off, we would choose the table she felt would be a good ad- as a group which mass to celebrate. dition. Many times she would find a No matter what, we celebrated Christ- recipe in one of her women’s maga- 7