Every Christmas Eve all members of my dad’s family (that are able) come together at my grandparents’ house. My dad is the oldest of 12 kids. As you can imagine, my family is rather large. I have 44 cousins on my dad’s side. Usually around Christmas most everyone tries to come, but I can’t remember the last time everyone was together; there’s always someone who can’t make it.
My grandparents house
My grandparents live on a farm in a small town far away from any big cities. They have a huge area of land, and some of my aunts and uncles have built their own houses on the property, so there are always lots of kids running in and out of the doors. Sometimes during the winter it’s harder to go in and out of doors due to the snow. There are times when the snow is deeper than a person is tall (a short person). Outside it’s freezing, but inside there’s no place warmer.
During the day, as all the kids are having snowball fights and building forts in the snow my grandmother along with help from many other members of my family start to cook. There is always A LOT of food. I guess there needs to be a lot in order to feed my family. Throughout the day the house fills itself with different Christmassy smells. When certain kids become tired or cold they run inside and “help” my grandma cook, which usually consists of telling her whether or not things taste good or not (takes a couple taste tests to tell). When it starts getting dark everyone starts to gather inside. Outside is wonderful at night where they live, no light pollution at all so it looks like there are millions upon millions of stars everywhere, but it does get cold. Inside everyone lines up to eat. Multiple tables are rounded up and put together, and buffet lines are formed. Usually the order in which you can get your food is determined by the order the children (my aunts and uncles) were born in, and my dad being the oldest usually gets to go first, which means I get to go first also. There’s an unwritten rule with my extended family, which is to get as much food as you can the first time around, because it probably will not be there if you want it again.
After eating we once again migrate to the living room. The older aunts and uncles get first priority on the couch, followed by the older cousins, and then the dozens of babies seem to fit in all the cracks and spaces. We all sing Christmas carols and the ones who can play accompaniment to the songs on the instruments that they play. Then we do the Christmas plays. My grandfather wrote several different Christmas related plays, and every year we perform them. He picks who the actors are, and hands the scripts out, then the performances start. My great grandmother, now dead, was a famous playwright, and my grandfather takes after her. Some plays are comedies, about the donkey that carries Mary and joseph to Bethlehem, and there are also serious ones, sad ones and traditional nativity ones.
As we’re all sitting in the living room, the fire keeps us warm. It’s a really long fireplace, but I guess it needs to be long in order to be home to the 12 different stockings that hang from the mantel. Towards the end of the night my grandparents hang out the stockings as we all thank them for the candy and gifts that they have inside. You can tell when it’s getting late, because suddenly all the giggly 3 year olds are passed out on the floor. We all say good night, and Merry Christmas, then we gather our coats and head out into the snow. I think my favorite part about Christmas is Christmas Eve.
