Traditions

We have quite a few traditions in my family, actually. Every holiday just about has a special tradition that goes along with it. For Easter we always go to Hardeville for Sunday dinner, for Halloween we all sit down and watch "Hocus Pocus" and carve pumpkins, and for Christmas we make cinnamon ornaments and decorate the house. The traditions that are the most fun are probably watching "Hocus Pocus" on Halloween because it is such a fun movie, and we have been watching it since I was really young. Christmas time in general is always fun, decorating the Christmas tree and putting lights up on the house, it is always exciting! One thing that we have done every single Christmas since I was born was to go over to my Grandmother's house, or stay at our house depending on the year, on Christmas Eve to open presents. My sister and I pack every present that is to a member of our family to take over to my grandparent's house, and my mom make an amazing ham. Once we arrive at my grandparent's house and eat dinner, the adults (anyone above the age of 25) divide the presents among the kids. We each end up with mini-mountains of presents in front of us, and then we tear into them as soon as my Grandmother says "GO!". It makes me feel like a little kid, waiting to open presents and sitting on the floor with my eight-year-old cousin, but it is so much fun.
After we leave my granparents house, around ten or eleven o'clock, and return home my sister and I are allowed to open one present from our parents before going to bed. And every year, the present we get to open is a pair of pajamas, which we wear to bed that night. The next morning, my sister and I wake up to go downstairs to find out what Santa Clause brought us during the night. My mom says that we are going to get gifts from Santa Clause until we stop living in her house, which is fine by me. The whole Christmas season has always been really important to my family. It is just a time where we are all together, and it feels like we are really close to one another. That is why I value these traditions so much, it is one of the many ways that my family tries to keep as close as possible, and to have fun together and laugh. Hopefully, I can start a similar tradition with my own children one day.