It's the greatest time of year. Sleigh bells are ringing, snow is glistening (if you're luck enough to have snow), and Santa is making his list and checking it twice. Christmastime is special to everyone, but it is especially important to me.

It is a time to spend with your family. Every year all my family comes over to my house for the Italian Christmas Eve party with the Feast of the Seven Fishes. I am especially looking forward to it this year because I have not seen all of my family together since before I left for college. While normally I help my mom get the house decorated, shop and wrap presents and cook, this year I was not home for the preparations. Coming home for Christmas to see everything done and my family holds special meaning for me this year because I realized just how much I missed everything while away. It might have been chaotic but it became a tradition with my mom that I love.

Christmas is a time of traditions. Whether it's baking cookies with my mom and nonna or decorating the Christmas trees then playing extreme Tetris to pack everything up or wrapping each other's Christmas presents while singing and dancing to Christmas music, the traditions my family holds are dear to my heart. I grew up in an Italian household, which means that we celebrate on Christmas Eve with the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Crab, lobster, shrimp, tilapia, calamari, mussels, and salmon all cooked with enough side dishes to feed a town. Christmas is a time that marks a transition for me: from the child who would be chased out of the kitchen when the cooking started to the young adult who stays and cooks with two other generations of Italian women.

Christmas is a holy time. It celebrates the birth of Jesus at mass. It means playing the flute at one or two (or this year three) different masses. You put on your best clothes and go to mass to joyfully sing about your faith. Once mass is over it is a time for Christmas carols all the way back to the car and all the way home.

All of this is what Christmas means to me. I'm just glad that I am still here to take part and be merry in it.

Merry Christmas to all!