Below is an article from the Cēsis and Vidzeme region newspaper Druva.
Loud, cheerful, and lively
In the family of Sniedze Gaštola-Kalniņa and Edgars Kalniņš, there are three children: the daughter Charlotte is eleven years old, Ralf is six, and the youngest son Edgar is three. The oldest and youngest child were born just before the May 4th celebrations, Charlotte's birthday is on May 2nd, and Edgar's is on May 3rd.
May - family celebrations
On May 4th, the family sets the table with Sniedze's sewn white tablecloth and homemade cottage cheese cake. The closest national holiday for the family is Latvia's birthday, November 18th, as well as November 11th. Then, candles are lit both in the Cēsis Castle Park and in the courtyard of the apartment building, where the outline of Latvia is also created from candles.
May holiday days are most associated with family anniversaries. Charlotte admits, however, that it is unusual that now the birthday is not only for her but also for her brother: “We celebrate birthdays in different ways, together and also separately. I like to celebrate both with friends and with relatives. It’s very nice that the birthday is in spring. One year we even managed to open the swimming season.”
Mom Sniedze believes that usually the celebrations can be planned on a larger scale, as children's birthdays often fall on weekends: “Therefore, we can plan a party for both adults and children, as well as for relatives in Riga. We can manage everything. My preparations for the celebrations start early. I am a seamstress, and I want to sew something special for the birthday person or for all of us.”
Charlotte prefers to celebrate her birthday at home. It turns out there is a very pragmatic reason for this: “I really like receiving gifts. If we go on a trip, then the gift is the trip, but if we celebrate at home, then my parents prepare a gift just for me.”
In the family, both children's festive days are celebrated, and they also enjoy visiting relatives for celebrations, so often holidays are spent celebrating one of the anniversaries. Dad Edgars says: “Since there are so many celebrations, Sniedze and I tend not to celebrate our name days too much. We happily celebrate both birthdays and name days for the children, and we always mark Easter, Midsummer, and Christmas together, as well as September 1st and the end of school.”
The store is named after the daughter's name
Sniedze works with Edgar in their own created fabric online store named after their daughter "Charlotte's Fabrics". It turns out that the company was also registered in May - on the 12th, because, while waiting for their third child, Sniedze decided that she wanted to open her own store.
My daughter is happy that the store is named after her and encourages those who come to the store to let mom tell them about it. "I feel very special that the store has my name," says the girl.
Charlotte is happy to help her parents, entrusting the girl to cut fabric samples, put the "Charlotte's Fabrics" stamp on the packages, and sometimes helping to pack orders. It is also an opportunity to earn some pocket money. The girl, seeing her parents' activities, has also thought about starting her own business, but although she plans to sew her own dress this summer, the business will most likely not be related to sewing.
Brother Ralfs has always perceived the store as his sister's store, which is why he calls it that. And he tells his parents that he also needs his own store because he wants to sell something too. Mom reveals that the ideas he would like to sell have been various: lego, bicycles, and also sweets.
Glad to spend time together
Sniegze and Edgars are together almost all day – at work and at home. Charlotte likes that her parents work together, she can see both of them at the same time, but she wonders: “But if they are together all the time, maybe they also argue more.” Dad Edgars, however, believes that both he and his wife have been able to separate their duties at work very well: “I work more on the website, programming, my wife with orders, social accounts, sewing.”
But Edgars also smiles, saying that everyone in the family is temperamental, which is why they are loud: “Taking that into account, as well as the fact that the store is buzzing with the colors of the fabrics, at home the walls are neutrally white, so as not to create an even greater desire to be active.” His daughter laughs, saying they can be heard from the fourth floor even down to the first. Sniedze reflects that they are all loud, cheerful, and active: “We don’t even have time to watch a movie because as soon as the snow melts, we are outside, riding bikes or going for walks. We indulge in a free time regime without a strict schedule of where we need to be. This Easter, we also went to the forest, lit a campfire, and grilled meat.” They didn’t take firewood with them, but managed to start a fire from the gathered branches, even though they were wet.
Sniedze admits: “If I have to decide – to tidy up the house or go out with the family -, I choose the latter. But the funniest thing is that when we are at home, we usually all gather in one square meter. If someone is cooking, the rest are in the kitchen, if someone is sitting on the couch, then the rest of the family is there too – even the cat and the dog.”
Family passion also includes cooking. A recently purchased cookbook "Snacking with Zane" is now being used to experiment with various dishes, mostly treats, baked "Sweet Brunette", other cakes, waffles, and even trying to make cheburek. Sometimes themed evenings are organized, when, for example, different cheeses are tasted, says Edgars. There was a pizza time when they also made the dough themselves. From time to time, when school ends earlier, Charlotte and her brothers prepare something for the others.
Thinking about family, Edgars concludes: “Over the years we have changed, everything we have experienced has led us to the point where we have our own business, and with the children we are flexible, not strictly planning everything, but allowing things to happen. That’s how we all feel the best.”
Text author: /
Publication: http://edruva.lv/skali-dzivespriecigi-un-kustigi/
