What is my most memorable family tradition? That is an easy one – Christmas! Christmas was the greatest holiday for me growing up.  It is the one that I remember the most.

I would always fight going to sleep because I wanted to catch Santa Claus.  I remember one Christmas Eve being at my Grandma’s house and sleeping in the “Guest Room.”  This was special because it was a queen bed, and it had big windows that I could look out if I stood on the bed.  I remember standing for a long time looking out those windows for Rudolph’s red nose.  Of course, sleep would eventually win out, and I never did catch Santa.

Our family’s tradition was that we could not wake our parents up before 5 am; but if we woke up before that time, we could go and play with the presents that Santa left.  Santa would always leave one present for each of us kids which was not wrapped, and it would fill our stockings.  We would have a blast with that one present and whatever was left in our stockings until it was okay to wake up Mom and Dad; and boy, did we watch that clock.  There was no way that our parents were getting to sleep past 5 am.

– Submitted by Robert Stocker