Christmas is right around the corner, with families rushing to get presents or gifts for family and friends and yet they all still manage to make room for their annual traditions, whether it be as simple as matching pajamas or a family game night. These traditions are what brings those families together. 

A family tradition during the holidays can be anything, and in my family we have multiple traditions. One of my favorites is when my grandma spends time making delicious goods for her family. Most of my family resides in different states. That doesn’t stop her every year from sending a box of her homemade goodies though. Since I can remember, my grandma has always made specific goodies. Some of my personal favorites are her oatmeal cream pie cookies and bon bon’s. Others are; rock candy, Peanut butter cookies, fudge, sugar cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels. When I was younger and we visited during the holidays we were able to help her. As a little girl it was amazing always to be able to be in the kitchen and help make such delicious sweets. Now that I’m older though and can help a lot more in the kitchen, the memories stick a lot better, and it’s truly fascinating how it all works. My grandma always told me she wasn’t able to take any Home Ec classes because she was taught by her mother how she bakes and cooks. Because of this, being a baking helper is a lot harder, since she doesn’t measure like what I was taught in school or read off the back of a cake box. Still to this day I can’t say I understand how she measures. 

Another family tradition that I will be here for this year after a while is opening our presents from family and friends on Christmas Eve, and waking up the following morning with more presents from Santa. Every year that I have been at my grandparents house, we always have designated wrapping paper for the different families there. My siblings and I all have the same wrapping paper and my cousins have different ones. It makes it easy for my grandma, who doesn’t like to put names on the gifts, to tell whose is who’s. Of course, theres also more delicious food we make. This year we are deciding to just do quick finger foods, leaving more time for us to spend together rather than spending the day away rushing around the kitchen. One of the quick foods we decided on is bacon wrapped asparagus.This year will be the first year me and my siblings will be around. Every other year we’ve missed out on the Christmas Eve fun due to living so many states away. When away from my grandparents and the rest of the family, it never feels the same. So I’m glad this year we will all be together, spending the holidays with the rest of the family.   

Already this month has been filled with Christmas shenanigans. Our elf has been up to absolutely no good. My cousins have been dying to see him work his magic and are always caught talking about how they will one day see him flying around our house or getting into the M&M’s. One morning we woke up and my cousins found him trapped in our conventional oven! Last year he was found in the fridge covered in my grandma’s special recipe carrot cake. Then the following day he was stuck upside down in a glass of juice. My guess is he needed a drink to follow the delicious cake he got into. Just yesterday, he was found sitting on the kitchen counter pointing to the sink of dirty dishes. After the dishes were taken care of, my grandpa and aunt left to gather more baking supplies from the store. When everyone was back at home, my cousins pointed out that the elf was missing. They couldn’t find him anywhere! After searching and working together, we finally found him. He was sitting on a snowflake decoration and had a box of his homemade cookies for the family to share. He made an extra trip when no one was home and surprised us with goodies.