It. Is. Almost. Christmas.
Christmas time truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Between the beautifully decorated trees that vibrantly twinkle throughout the city, the elaborate Christmas light displays that you gaze at for what seems like hours, and the happiness of family coming together to celebrate this joyous holiday, it seems impossible to find things finer than these. However, there is nothing better than the family traditions that come with Christmas.
1. Driving around town to look at the Christmas lights
As a family, we would all pile into our sky blue Dodge Durango with our Christmas pj's on and slippers. Once all in the car, we would sit on the cold leather seats and begin to look at the lights in the surrounding neighborhoods before heading to look at the ones in our surrounding cities and counties. This adventure typically took place on a Sunday night after all of our homework, practices, and dinner was completed. I can remember being in middle school and thinking how cool it was that at 10 o'clock at night, my mom let us stay up to look at the twinkling lights of the tidewater area. This was a no-cellphone, no Nintendo DS, no electronic trip; this rule made the trip so much better because there wasn't a distraction or glowing light reflection on the window. Just lights. We always knew the trip was concluding because we would hit the Dairy Queen on Oyster Point to grab Blizzards.
2. The Christmas Eve Service
Every Christmas Eve, my family goes to our church and attends the evening service. We all receive a new outfit, get dressed up, and start the drive to our church. Once we park in the lot, we all get out of the car, straighten out our dresses or slacks, fix our stockings and lipstick or ties and cuff-links, and proceed to walk up to the giant red doors. I love being greeted by the ushers once inside the chapel. The ushers tell every woman how beautiful they look, every man receives a "hello" and a handshake, and every family is guaranteed a "Merry Christmas!" and a program. We find our pew, take our coats off, and immediately hug all of our friends. About halfway through the service, the youth put on a "pageant." This pageant consists of the Christmas story, forgotten lines followed by giggles and claps from the crowd, and homemade costumes. While all of this is grand, nothing beats the pitch-black, candlelit singing of "Silent Night" at the end of the service. Everyone breaks out the hymnal, flips to the page in-scripted in the program, and holds the candle just close enough to where we can read the words, but not set the book to flames. At the finale of the song, the Rector will bless the congregation and we will all proceed to the parish hall to have a "birthday party" for Jesus.
3. Going to bed "early" on Christmas Eve and waking up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning.
I kid you not, my little brother does not sleep on Christmas Eve; even to this day he will come into my room at 4 am to wake me up to see if it's ok to get our parents up from their bed. Well, I'm not going to lie, Christmas Eve gives me butterflies as well, but I know we can't wake our parents up. Yet. So, as a compromise, my little brother and I put our slippers on, grab our flashlights and very quietly tip-toe down the creaking hardwood-floored hallway. If you can imagine what The Grinch looks like when when he is creeping around Cindy Lou Who's house, that is what my little brother and I look like. Anyways, we always do a "sneak peak" of the tree between the hours of 4 and 5 am and then we both crawl into either mine or his bed to talk about what we think is wrapped up. We take about a 30 minute nap and wake up at around 7 am. Once we put our slippers back on, grab a blanket (because it is always chilly in the morning), and run into my parents room to wake them up. As my parents wake up and rub their eyes, the first thing they ask us is "what time is it?" and we always round the time up to the nearest half-hour to make it seem a little later than it is. The coffee pot *ding* is literally the bell to signify that it is acceptable to start opening presents. After the paper has been torn to shreds, and the wrapping paper is in an unrecognizable pile, we leave the living room, go into the kitchen and and eat the breakfast casserole my mom has made.
There are so many things that make Christmas the greatest time of the year, but these traditions make it memorable. There is not one thing in this entire world that I would trade for these Christmas traditions.
