AWOL - Winter Holiday Assignment

Today is January 1, 2009 and this Winter Break has been like any other winter break for the past 17 years of my life.

On December 24th, Christmas eve, my family and i traveled to my mom's side of the family in Nanuet, NY and stayed there til 1:30 in the morning to open Christmas Presents at midnight. On Christmas day, my family then traveled to Dumont, NJ where the my dad's side of the family lives and celebrated the rest of Christmas there, until we had to travel back to Nanuet, NY to my mom's side once more for a Christmas dinner.

Between my mom and dad's side of the family, I feel both sides have their similarities in terms of having a tradition, but both are different on how Christmas was actually celebrated.

Christmas Eve:
On my mom's side, we arrived at the Estrada [mom's maiden name] house around 9 PM. While we wait for Christmas morning, 12 o'clock midnight, the family socializes by catching up on what they have missed through out the whole year, any recent news, etc etc. At 12 AM, my uncle usually announces all the gift, reading out who gave what to who, but because he did not attend Christmas with the Estrada's and instead at his fiances house, I was chosen by my aunts and uncles to read out the presents. It was kind of weird because i remember having to be the one to watch the gifts being announced after so long, and this Christmas i got to do it.

Christmas Day:
On my dad's side, we arrived at the Dionisio [dad's last name] house around 1 PM where the whole family prayed before we ate. The cousins took care of the nieces and nephews, playing around with them, the aunts got together to talk about gossip while most of the men in the family, my uncles and older cousins, got together to watch a boxing match that took place two weeks before Christmas, Pacquio (a Filipino Boxer) Vs. Del La Hoya (a Mexican Boxer). Within the Dionisio family, a lot of the members have pride for being a Filipino, and because Pacquio is a Filipino, the were proud that he won the boxing match , 8 out of 12 rounds.
Aside from boxing, the day continued and it was time to give out presents. But before we do that, every year it was tradition to a small sermon of Jesus' birth the scriptures from The Bible. After every passage that was read, we sang a couple of verses to songs that matched up with the specific passage from The Bible. The small sermon lasted for about thirty minutes. Towards the end my cousin said a prayer and then gifts were handed out. After all of the gifts, all of the younger cousins get envelopes--each cousins gets between 3-6 envelopes from aunts and uncles filled with money. Its not surprise for my sister to get money on Christmas though, family members have stopped giving us actual gifts since middle school.

The two traditions that are taken place on Christmas, I feel, is not similar yet, not too different from the American Way of Life, just because most families actually celebrate Christmas just to get gifts. They sometimes forget that its also about spending time with the family. Though Christmas is all about 'sales' and having to BUY something for another person, most families do follow up on the same tradition on having a family get-together. But in my opinion I don't think it sounds familiar, at least between my friends, to have a small sermon at home before opening gifts. I mean going to church is one thing, but its another to have a small sermon in a house hold--not that there is anything wrong with it, its a way of reminding us why Christmas is celebrated, because of the birth of Christ.

Now, this follows-up on a question--do people actually understand WHY Christmas is celebrated? Has Christmas only been celebrated for the material things? Majority of America is Christian, or in a general overview 'believes in Jesus', but do families realize why they put a star on the top of the tree? or the fact that there are PRESENTS that take part on Christmas day?

Enough talk about Christmas...

On to New Years Day. So today New Years was pretty lame for me because I did not get to celebrate it the traditional way-- going out with family/friends and having the number '2009' hat on my head with a mini blow horn. While everybody in NYC partied, hung out at times Square, got together with other family/friends, I was stuck in the Poconos finishing my college apps that are due on New Years Day. Surprisingly, I finished the applications at 11:58 PM on the dot, on New Years Eve. That was when I quickly ran into the living room where my mom, dad and sister were, yelling the countdown of New Years while watching the ball drop down in Times Square. After that I went back into my room and slowly fell asleep. This year I was actually mad that I did not get to spend New Years with anybody else but my family. It has been 'tradition' since i was a baby to spend it with the Estrada family, but because everybody moved up north, New Years was no longer celebrated with the Estrada's, and instead with our individual family. This year I wanted to break tradition, but unfortunately couldn't. On New Years, most Americans actually celebrate New Years by going out and having fun with other family & friends--This year i was unable to be a part of that American way of living.