Lauren Jung
Editor-in-chief
Every morning in December, my brother and I race each other to open our family’s Advent calendar. The hidden chocolates are sweet, but the picture that always greets us in our sleepy stupor is one of the most classic symbols of the holidays — the Nativity scene. Baby Jesus sleeps in a trough of hay with Mary and Joseph watching over him with serene, joyful grins. This is a picture of a family, albeit Jesus’ human family, but his family nonetheless.
Even though today’s holiday season is a time often associated with Christmas trees, twinkling lights and gifts, one of the most important parts of the celebration is family. This Christmas, I’ll be spending every moment I can with my family.
As a senior, I’ll be going off to college next year. I’ll come back home for Christmas, but I won’t be able to open the Advent calendar every day with my brother, and I won’t be able to drink hot chocolate and eggnog with my grandfather after dinners like I do now.
There are countless family commitments and traditions we have each year like addressing hundreds of Christmas cards by hand, visiting relatives I haven’t seen all year and playing a competitive game of hide-and-go-seek with my cousins.
Although some are a bit uncomfortable and awkward like sitting at the dinner table next to my cousin’s boyfriend who is so nervous that he only responds with one-syllable answers and the occasional grunt, I’ll still miss the laughs my cousins and I share over dinner. But when all is said and done, these memories will be the ones that I will remember and treasure.
These memories aren’t just confined to the holiday season, either. Even though my brother likes to hide my homework sometimes, I’ll miss how he wraps up Pokémon cards for me as a present and expects me to share the same enthusiasm for the little creatures. But next year when I am miles away from home, I won’t be able to be as close to my family as I am now.
So I am going to cherish every moment of this Christmas season with my family because Christmas is not only the celebration of Jesus’ birth, but the celebration of our loved o
