As soon as Halloween is over, my family’s Christmas decorations go up. Our house looks like Santa’s workshop with decorations everywhere.  Our 12 foot Christmas tree is adorned with over 100 ornaments. Other decorations include a new Hallmark singing snowman. Buying one is a tradition we’ve had for 10 years. We line them up is in order by year on our shelves in the kitchen. Our dogs especially like it when my younger brother clicks on all the snowmen at the same time, filling our house with multiple holiday songs at the same time. A whole day is dedicated to music and decorating and the best part is that we get to spend time with each other. Our entire living room is rearranged to fit in our Christmas tree and different decorations, reminding us how happy and bright the holiday season is. I would actually love to keep up our Christmas decorations all year but my parents refuse.

Every year on Christmas Eve, my family goes out to dinner at a Japanese steak house with our neighbors. After dinner, we go home and open family presents. Before my siblings and I go to bed, we make a plate of cookies, nuts, candy and milk with letters from each of us for Santa. Then we read Twas’ the Night Before Christmasand we all sleep in the same room and in the same bed, which is my older sisters, Mackenzie’s room. When we wake up on Christmas day, we scream for our parents repeatedly while we wait, squirming in our beds until they wake up and ensure us that Santa Claus came. My older sister and I still pretend for our younger brother and you would think we actually still believed. My sister, brother and I slowly walk down the stairs with our eyes closed making sure not to fall, and when we get to the bottom we run to our presents. The rest of the day, we watch A Christmas Story and Elf.

Our lives are so hectic: my older sister is a college athlete, my brother and I are on traveling soccer teams, and our parents work full time jobs. We sometimes get too caught up in our own lives, forgetting to spend time with each other. But we can always count on the holidays to slow us down and bring us together.