TJ's+English+Wiki

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Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. I love the Christmas lights, the tree, the smells and the Christmas songs. I also like the feeling of happiness that seems to be present in everyone. Strangers wishing you a merry Christmas or happy holiday. Feeling generous when I take some of my money to buy a present for someone less fortunate. However, my favorite part of Christmas is all of my family getting together. With the whole family together, snow, sleds, snowmobiles, and tables of food, it’s hard not to have fun. When sounds of laughter and excitement fill the air many memories are made. My family has many Christmas traditions. When the first snow falls around Christmas, we get our Christmas tree. We use to venture into the woods to find “the just right tree,” but now we go to the top of the garage and pull the box down. We always decorate the tree as a family with my brother and I taking turns each year putting the angel on top. After the tree is decorated we sit to a special snack. Often the smell of cookies fills the air as we sit down to admire our decorated tree and eat. December 24th is when me, mom, dad, and my brother celebrate Christmas. The night of the 23rd (our Christmas Eve) my family always plays the board games Aggravation, Scrabble, and Sorry. It’s always my dad and me vs. my mom and Tyler. Mom and Tyler usually win in Scrabble and my dad and I win in Aggravation. It’s a close game when we play Sorry. Then we set out the cookies and milk, just in case someone in a red suit stops by and is a little hungry. Oh, and we don’t forget the reindeer. They need some carrots to help them on their journey across the world. Then on Christmas Eve day Tyler and I run downstairs to a tree filled with presents from Santa. Well, that’s what the packages have written on them. After all the presents are unwrapped and the socks are dumped out, Tyler and I always mess around with our presents. We stay home until about 2:00 or 3:00. Then we go do my gram and gramp’s house. Christmas at my gram and gramps is my dad’s side of the family. All of my dad’s family is there, including my cousin who goes to college in California (so it’s nice to see him). My gram cooks us a HUGE supper and all the family eats together. Then the kids get presents, and the adults do some game where every person only brings one present. All the presents go in the middle of the floor and remain wrapped. They draw for picks and they can either switch presents with someone else or take a present from the floor that they think is better. It’s fun to watch the adults fight over the present that everyone seems to want. After all my dad’s side of the family leaves we return home for about an hour. Then we go up to my Memere and Pepere’s house, which is my mom’s side of the family. All my aunts and cousins go up. We spend Christmas Eve together sliding, snowmobiling and playing xbox. The adults play cards. After a long night of fun and laughs everyone goes back home, except my family. We stay the night. We eat and sit around, but have to get to bed early so Santa can come. Before bed my Pepere always calls Santa and tells him what we want and how good we have been. The next morning we wake up and celebrate Christmas just with our Memere and Pepere. We exchange gifts that they got just for me and Tyler and my parents. Eventually everyone else comes back up and we exchange gifts with EVERYONE. Then the fun starts again. This is when we usually take the snow machines out and have snowball fights. After everyone leaves we clean up and get ready for next year. With all these Christmases I have tons of memories. My favorite memory is when my cousin Brandon, my brother Tyler, and myself wrestled my uncle Kevin. This was about 5 years ago. We were all wrestling and Kevin knocked the Christmas tree over. The tree crashed onto the rug, knocking all the ornaments off. Nothing broke and everyone laughed. However, the joke was on us because we had to pick up the entire mess. So as each Christmas passes I find myself with many happy memories. As each Christmas approaches I wonder what might happen this time? Will I get the present I wanted? Who will fall of the sled? Or will another tree get knocked over? What ever it is I know it will be fun.

**Theodore Ionta was born in 1935 in Mexico Maine. His parents were Martin Ionta**