There are so many things happening during Christmas time such as gift-giving, music, decorations, traveling, cooking, gathering, etc. The Christmas lights and music and the arrival of Jesus are only a few things that make Christmas so special (trust me, I am one of those people that listens to Christmas music BEFORE Thanksgiving.) To me, Christmas time means being with my family and spending time together to reconnect. Aside from the gifts, trees, and lights, traditions are my favorite part about Christmas!

My large family has many traditions but the ones around Christmas time are the best. It starts off Thanksgiving day. We run the annual Turkey Trot 5k and then go to my neighbor's house to eat squirrel and biscuits. Once we finish eating and cleaning up after the family meal, we all go to buy our tree! For the past couple of years, we have gotten two trees (a big one for the living room, and a smaller one for the kitchen.)

My mom has a passion for decorating the whole house and the trees to make it look like a winter wonderland. She had decided to create a "nature tree" which consists of fallen bird nests, branches, shells, and many other things we have found while traveling. Our other tree is full different Santa ornaments and statues that were either gifts or bought from around the world. Besides the trees, my mom will spend days on perfecting the mantle with garland and other decorations.

For outside lights, it`s a process. It takes a few days to take down and put up all of the Christmas lights so we usually start on Thanksgiving. Once everything is up, the decorations are complete and Christmas is ready to begin. One of the annual events we do for Christmas is go see the bonfires on the levee. These bonfires are built along the Mississippi river and lit on Christmas Eve in order to light the way for Papa Noel, the cajun Santa.

Another Christmas tradition, for my dad, is ordering seven boxes of Russel Stover orange jelly sticks and watching "The Christmas Story," and "Charlie Brown Christmas" over and over again while my moms blasts Josh Groban through the living room. The night before Christmas Eve, we gather at my uncle Jeff`s to prepare all of the food for the big Christmas Eve party at my grandmothers.

The adults are busy preparing Bambi bites and fish on a stick while the kids are decorating Christmas cookies. Then comes Christmas Eve, my favorite day of the year for one specific reason. Every Christmas Eve we have a huge party at my grandmother's house filled with family and friends, new and old. The night is filled with hay rides, a bonfire, a hundred plates of food, and good times. We all gather to play white elephant to see who gets the re-gifted chia pet for the fifth year in a row. The night ends when all of the uncles pass out in the recliners and the last fish on a stick has been eaten.

Everyone then rushes home to get in bed before Santa comes. On Christmas morning, I get woken up at four in the morning by my sisters to peek at all of the presents that Santa has left us. We then try and go back to bed for a couple more hours until we wake up my parents to open the rest of the presents. Once Christmas day is over, the traditions end and I must wait another year. Ofcourse I am sad that all of the fun is over, but at least I have many other traditions to look forward to throughout the year.