Develop, cherish family memories

This time of year we always start thinking of memories from the past, especially when family gets together for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We always think, “Oh you remember what happened on that birthday?” or, “Hey what did they say at camp that one time?”
What we don’t often realize is that while laughing at all the good memories that we are reminiscing over, we don’t stop to realize what great memories we are making.
As teenagers we often take for granted the story telling that goes on amongst the older generations in the family.
A lot of times we think “I don’t know that person so why should I care?” or “Why are they making me sit here? I’d rather be out with my friends!” but as we sit there we learn so many things about our family that we thought we knew so well and even things about ourselves.
When I was little, one year I decided that we were going to have hot dogs for dinner on Christmas Eve.
The next year, I decided that I wanted hot dogs again, after all, it’s a very ‘Christmassy’ food right?
Slowly it became a tradition in my family to have Christmas Eve at my house and we would eat hot dogs and my mom and I would pass out our presents to everyone. Now however, we don’t do that anymore but it is still a treasured memory that we always talk about.
Another memory that we as teenagers don’t always appreciate is waking up to find that Santa had come the night before.
In many different families and cultures the man with the rosy-red cheeks and the Jell-O-like belly comes at different times. But despite when he comes or when your family traditionally places presents under the tree, curiosity generally gets the best of us and we try to snoop around the house, car, garage, or anywhere that we can think of that our presents may be hiding. Sometimes we will wake up in the middle of the night and go downstairs, trying oh so carefully not to wake up Mom and Dad, just to see what Santa left for us only to have it backfire because we can not turn on any lights so therefore we can not see to know what our presents are.
So here’s my challenge to you, over this holiday season, whenever your family is together ask them what some of their favorite memories are of when they were your age. It just may surprise you as to what you will find out.