Dear Crazy Family,

It's true, I wouldn't trade any of you for anything. We are the epitome of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. There should be a movie of us, or maybe a reality TV show. Even though we are a bit crazy, there is no other family I would rather be surrounded by on the holidays.

The big family dinners would be boring if we weren't a bit crazy.

How could we ever get by without the cousins kicking each other under the table during Christmas dinner? Or without that one family member that steals pieces of dinner before it's served? I know for my family, if chaos hasn't already begun, dinner will open the floodgates. The kids will fight to be first in the dinner line, someone will drop food on the floor and the dog will run away with it, somehow Christmas of 2003 will be brought up when the ham got charred in the oven - it's inevitable.

Unwrapping gifts would be lame.

Oh the sweet sound of giggles, screams, and tears. You get all the emotions during this time of the night. There are the gag gifts of course, like the company tee-shirts that one uncle always gifts. Then you have your "scream gifts" (the ones that someone has been waiting their entire life to open), like when my cousin unwrapped a Nikon camera a few Christmases ago. Lastly, you have the tears. These usually come from the kids that are hoping to unwrap an Xbox One but end up unwrapping a Costco-sized box of socks. What would Christmas be if one of the cousins didn't lose their expensive gift card in the ever-growing pile of wrapping paper? Unwrapping gift room would be lame if we didn't have a room full of all sorts of emotions.

Family pictures would be..."traditional".

This is usually the time of the night where Grandma pulls out the camera. All she wants is to update the wall with a shiny, new family picture. Unfortunately, Grandma usually envisions a nice "traditional" family picture where everyone has their eyes open with normal smiles. However, this part of the night usually takes the longest in our crazy family. The uncles will throw up "bunny ears" on their wives and kids, the cousins will tickle each other, and/or someone will always forget to smile and make the entire family take a re-do. "I think that was a good one!" Grandma will usually say before we all check the small screen on the camera. It may seem good at the first glance, but when you look close enough at Uncle Joe, that one family member that always blinks right when the shutter closes, you will see that he has in fact blinked right as the picture was taken. What would a crazy family photo be if that one cousin who makes the worst face at the very last minute smiled normally? Or if Grandma didn't give up and cue the "funny picture" time. It sure would be boring if we had a traditional photo.

All jokes aside, even though we are a bit crazy, I find myself filled with absolute joy when Grandma is laughing so hard tears are brought to her eyes, when my uncles crack dumb jokes, and most of all when we can enjoy sweet family fellowship. There are only a few times a year when our family is together in one room, but it's sort of like one big puzzle with traveling pieces - we all sort of fit together. I wouldn't trade any of you for anything.