Thinking of Christmas fills my heart with joy. I love spending time with my friends and family. Christmas means so much to me because I get to see family I haven’t seen in a very long time, like my cousin Angie, who moved to California in the fall of 2017. I found out that she is coming down this year and I couldn’t be more happy. As a kid I loved Christmas and my love for it has grown.

Christmas Eve all of my family goes to my great-grandma’s. When we arrive I am greeted by my aunts, uncles, and cousins. All of the “grown ups” stay in the kitchen while all of the teens/kids go to the living room; it’s not mandatory it’s just how it has always been. We always have a variety of soup, along with oyster soup, my mom would say with disgust. As soon as supper is ready we all head to the kitchen and stack our plates and eat until we can’t anymore. We all talk for hours at the dinner table, then after a bit we all open our stockings and my grandpa goes around taking pictures of us all. Then after a bit of lounging we all go to the living room and open the gifts that my great-grandma got us. After about two hours of conversing, my grandma gives all of my younger cousins cookies to lay out for Santa for the night and then we all head home. On our way home we go to the park and admire the Christmas lights. For some odd reason I have always believed that you are supposed to make a wish going under the tunnel of lights, yet supposedly no one ever told me to do that; I have just always done that.  

Christmas day, when all of my siblings are awake, we all head downstairs and open presents. Then when everyone is ready we all head to my Grandpa Butch and Grandma Denise’s house for lunch. When I walk in, my two youngest cousins, Draven, who is 7, and Bayne, who is 5, are displaying all the toys they got and whenever someone new walks in they won’t hesitate to show them their new gadgets. Soon when everyone has arrived, lunch is ready and we all dig in. After what feels like minutes but has been many hours, it’s time to open more presents, and after a while it’s time for my family to leave and go to my dad’s side of the family’s gathering. As my family heads from Robinson to Palestine we gaze upon the bright array of lights. We get to my Grandma Diana’s and eat what we can for supper. We all enjoy each other’s presence and tell stories, some old and new. Eventually we gather our belongings and head to the park for one more look at the lights, just in case we missed something from the night before, my dad constantly says. Then we head home and sleep like the dead.

Just a few days after Christmas, a small group of friends plan to meet at one of our houses. We all try to cram into one car and go to the closest grocery store and buy a collection of food and beverages. Before heading to the chosen house we all go get coffee wherever we can find it. Then all my friends continue to the chosen house and watch a marathon of movies, most of which aren’t even Christmas movies. Soon after the last movie ends, (and at this point I can’t even remember how many we have watched before this) we all say our goodbyes and head home. I haven’t been doing this tradition for very long, but I hope we do for as long as we can.

Out of all of these traditions its very hard to choose what I love the most. If I had to choose it’d be the moment right after we all open our presents, when there is this sort of peace that falls and without anyone saying anything you can tell we can all feel it. Although I love opening presents I love spending time with my family, especially with my cousins. I would never change my Christmas traditions even though they can be very hectic. I love my traditions because it’s something familiar. I know without a doubt that every Christmas will be a good one.