I usually do not enjoy always being withe my family all the time. I would stay in my room to be away from them and get a break from them being so loud. During the holidays is the one time I enjoy being around all of them. We get along a lot better than during the rest of the year and we are also actually together for the most part. We tend to be more civil towards each other while we are decorating the tree, opening presents Christmas morning, baking Christmas cookies, and much more.
Ever since my oldest sibling graduated college and started working full time, we have rarely been able to spend any time together other than holidays. We dedicate one whole day we are all available to decorating the Christmas tree and sometimes even the whole house. We would set up our artificial tree in the morning to get the hardest part out of the way. Once we are all ready, we would get all of the ornaments out so that we can start hanging them onto the tree. After we finish decorating the tree, we might start to get all of the house decorations out and getting it all done at once. If we do not decorate the rest of the house that day, we would usually wait until we have another day we're all free to get everything ready.
We don't only decorate the Christmas tree together. We would also bake all different kinds of Christmas cookies, like gingerbread and meringue cookies. This isn't only for my immediate family, my grandmother would also come over so that her and my mother can bake the cookies. While they are baking, me and my siblings would decorate the cookies an make them our own, except for a few my mother would decorate to look nicer. This is usually an all day thing for my mother and grand-mother, but it is a whole weekend for my mother. She bakes a few cookies the one day, and then she would bake the others during her own time the rest of the weekend. these cookies would be given to friends and family and even co-workers or teachers to share the Christmas spirit.
Christmas morning is another tradition that has never died. We would all wake up and get ready before going downstairs. Although we do not get as excited, we still love the surprises that await us when we all walk downstairs on Christmas morning. Once everyone gets up and heads downstairs, we open all the presents one at a time. that is also when we exchange the gifts that we got each other. After we clean all of the wrapping paper and gifts up off the floor, we all sit down at the table and have a family breakfast together. At around noon is when my grandparents and uncle would show up and we have a traditional Christmas dinner, which is basically a second Thanksgiving cause it's usually turkey.
I know that my family thinks that I always hate being around them, but that isn't completely true. Yes, I am not a fan of being around them all the time during my break, but there is something about the holidays that makes me want to be around everyone. I hope that if I have a family of my own, I will be able to continue some of these traditions with them as well as making some new ones.
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