Freewrite: December 03, 2010

So, this weekend is the weekend of all weekends at my house. This is the weekend when all of our Christmas cookies are put onto trays so they can be given out to everyone! This is a tradition that has been happening as long as I can remember. My Mom and her best friend, Anne, get together and make thousands of cookies. Literally. There are probably 50 types of cookies and candies that we put on the trays! It's amazing. They spend so much time doing this every year and then this weekend all of it is brought to my house where I get to walk around in a circle for four hours or so. Once everything is set up and all the trays are done, it truly feels like the holidays for me. It just feels like Christmas is finally almost here. It's great. I've been thinking a lot about traditions recently and mostly holiday traditions at that. Every year, my family used to go to Exotic Animal Paradise to see the lights and animals on Christmas Eve. However, we haven't done that in quite a few years, and it makes me sad. It makes me kind of relate that to my childhood and one of the things that was a childhood tradition. I mean, I'm still in my childhood (kind of), but at the same time, it is something I won't remember doing as a teen, so it's only from when I was little. When I wake up on Christmas morning, the routine is always the same. I get up, go look at the presents, and try to find the footprints that "Santa" left from the soot in our fireplace that night. Last year, much to my disappointment, I watched my Dad put down the footprints of flour in our basement. It was really depressing. I've known Santa isn't real for quite a while, but just watching something happen that had amazed me for so many years was really sad. It kind of ruined that experience for me. Growing up sucks sometimes.

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