It can be argued that traditions, as well the people who participate in them, are what make families different. There are many different kinds of traditions. They can be formed anytime, and for any reason. They can be as simple as watching TV together while everyone is on their phone, or as complicated as a traditional Chinese wedding. Traditions are fun, and they can bring families together. The tradition that I can count on happening at least once a day is a mean joke between my stepmom, dad, and siblings.
Whenever someone asks for something, you reply with, “no” wait a few seconds then give it to them. It has been a thing that my family does since I can recall. Because of this tradition, I believe I have become more sarcastic. While I realize it is not always a good thing to be sarcastic, it has contributed to my sense of humor. Another one of the most regular traditions my stepmom, dad, sister, and I partake in is binge watch The Walking Dead. Before I begin to tell the story I should preface with this; Kyla has wanted to watch The Walking Dead for a long time. I am terrified of most things.
Zombies, creepy guys, things jumping out at you, abandoned anything, moths, guts, the woods during the day, the woods at night, moths, stressful situations. Normal stuff for an episode of the Walking Dead. The tradition started one night after a Linganore football game. Kyla and I get out of our uniforms, and put them back. After saying bye to a few people, we leave the auditorium and go out into the D Wing of Linganore. Outside the doors of the auditorium sitting in a chair, legs crossed, phone in hand, sits my stepmom, Nikki. She looks up from her phone, asks if we are ready. We say no and leave.
While in the car, Nikki announces over the music turned up to full blast, that we [Kyla, her, and dad] were going to watch The Walking Dead, and that if I wanted to join, I was welcome to. Not wanting to feel left out, I accept the offer and try to mentally prepare myself for what was going to ensue. That night we stayed up until one in the morning watching The Walking Dead, and thus a tradition was born. It is a way for the family, not including my little brother, Miles, to spend some time together. We do not usually spend time together without Miles around, and we always have fun when we do.
At Noodles Inc. ne of my family members has to get chopsticks. Kyla, my sister, started the tradition roughly three months ago when she ordered mac and cheese and was too lazy to go get silverware. This is how I learned how to use chopsticks. I am not efficient, but I would not die if that was the only way I could eat something. A tradition, that has unfortunately ended, is Thanksgiving at my great grandparents house in New Jersey. I have a lot of family members that live in Jersey so, us Marylanders would take the three or four hour trip up to Egg Harbor. I always remembered going through the Fort McHenry tunnel.
When I was younger, I thought that there were trains inside the tunnel. That is clearly not true, but I remembered seeing these “trains” so vividly that I was convinced that they were real. One time when we went to their house, it had snowed a lot and the plows had piled up the snow really high because evidently there was no place to put the snow. At the time it was comparable to sky rise building. But, I did not remember snow clothes because we did not know there was snow. That did not stop my cousin and I. So my cousin, sister, and I are playing in ten foot piles of filthy snow at 9:00 PM.
It is pitch black, my pants at this point are soaked and my legs are about to freeze off. I vaguely remember someone getting hurt, possibly. However, that is not my favorite thing that has happened while there. My aunt has a game called Right, Left, Center. It is played with chips or coins and three die. If you roll a right, one of your chips goes to the person to your right, same idea if you roll a left. If you roll a dot you put a chip in the center. The person with the most chips at the end wins. One night after a five course Italian thanksgiving, my aunt, uncle, and immediate family were playing this game.
You never really get “out” because a chip can always be given to you by a person sitting on either side of you, and that is exactly what happened to me. Multiple times. To sum up the game, we were playing for a whole two dollars and I almost won and I was so butthurt that I ended up getting the money Almost every fall my mom’s side of the family goes to a place called Maize Quest in Pennsylvania. The first time we went in 2010, the corn maze was nine acres, and the theme was Island Adventure. However, the nine acre corn maze is not the only thing to do at Maize Quest. There is a bamboo maze.
Just like the website says you, “Find the stations, color your fingertips, read your fortune. ” . Whenever we go in at night there are always people that either are drunk or are acting like idiots. Which is most likely why my cousin does not like going in at night. One time when we were in the maze at night, there were people with lanterns trying to scare everyone. I have never seen some people run faster. The scarers would be in all black, hide tucked away in the bamboo, turn their lanterns on, and simultaneously jump out and yell. As I mentioned earlier, I happen to be afraid of everything, so one could only imagine how paranoid I was.
And the last, but certainly not least, another holiday tradition. My family celebrates Christmas. Christmas is my personal favorite holiday, for mostly selfish reasons, but reasons none the less. On Christmas Eve we start by going to my grandparents house and having a big dinner and opening stockings that my grandma hand made for us when we were born. Then when we get home the first thing we do is unload the stuff from our grandparents house and get ready for bed. My siblings and I go into our parents bedroom and get on Santa Tracker immediately so we know when we should go to bed.
This year that might change though, becuase Miles, my little brother, knows about Santa now. We find a Christmas movie or two then settle down on the floor or bed. Usually we watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Elf. We watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas because when we first started the tradition that is what we watched and the second movie because it is our favorite Christmas movie us. The tradition started one year when for Christmas we got new furniture for our rooms and we could not be in our rooms while they were putting the furniture together.
Basically the tradition started as a trick and we liked it so much, we thought, let’s do it again next year a couple of times. I suppose that is how most traditions start though. The idea behind the tradition is that we all wake up together and we all see the presents at the same time. Whether they start out as a trick, you are forced to, or as a “fun” idea, traditions are special and keep family together. My traditions have made me funnier (arguably), more self aware, less of an angry Italian (again, arguable), closer to my family, and thankful for cured meats. Like capocollo and cabrese.