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Women's Soccer Lists Their Favorite Christmas Memories - Part I
12/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
DURHAM, N.C. -- Members of the Blue Devil women's soccer team shared their favorite Christmas memories as well as photos from different parts of their lives growing up around the holidays. This is part one of a three-part series of memories from the Duke student-athletes. Make sure you check out the link to the photo gallery to the right, which has photos from members of the soccer team as they grew up.
Happy Holidays from the Duke women's soccer team.
My favorite part of Christmas is being with my family. We always drive to the mountains right after Thanksgiving to cut down a Christmas tree. My sister and I always count the number of trees on top of cars that we see while driving. We end up getting to really ridiculous totals that are probably not accurate at all. Then, we stop in this little town called Todd, N.C. There is an old fashioned general store with no heat or A/C and wooden floors. There is a big stove in the middle that heats the entire store. It's such a quaint little place and we love going there.
On Christmas Eve, we always have a fire going and my sister and I curl up in sleeping bags in our living room and my dad reads “The Night before Christmas” in his best narrator voice. I'm usually the one to fall asleep before it's halfway over, while my sister tries to recite the story from memory. Then, we head to bed and wait for Santa to come.
On Christmas Day, my sister always comes and wakes me up really early. Then, we try and force my parents to wake and get breakfast started. Then, my dad gets the video camera ready and starts a fire, and my mom has her camera ready. Once everything is set up and my parents have stalled enough and my sister and I are dying with anticipation, we sprint downstairs to see what Santa brought us. There are usually shrieks of joy and pure excitement. After we look at all of those gifts, my grandma comes over and we all eat breakfast together, and then we open up presents. After the excitement from ripping open boxes and throwing bows and paper everywhere, we settle down a little and head over to my grandma's house. She only lives about five minutes away and everyone on my dad's side of the family comes over. That may sound like a lot of people, but it's actually only 14 people, and that's only if everyone is there. So we all sit together and eat Christmas lunch/dinner and then open up more presents and eat dessert. Then, my family heads back home, after eating lots and lots of good food, and my sister and I play with our new presents!
Christmas is, by far, my favorite holiday!
My favorite holiday tradition would have to be having my entire family over at our house for Christmas Eve dinner. It is always a time of sharing great food, fun stories, and genuine family time. Before my grandmother passed away, this event would always be held in my grandparents' much too small house incapable of comfortably holding our 40 guests. Somehow we all managed with the lack of space and had great family dinners year after year. The same elements of great food, stories, and family bonding were all there, but for 6-year-old Lynnea, this Christmas gathering was not always so pleasant. Of course I loved the
presents, singing happy birthday to Jesus, and blowing out the candles (which, one year, I too eagerly tried to accomplish and nearly set my hair ablaze), however, with the good also came the bad. I feared my Uncle Tom in his Santa Clause get-up more than anything else. I would cry, kick, and scream begging my parents not to make me sit on the man's lap whose sleeves were too short, white beard was on crookedly, and who creepily knew my name.
If having to fear the man holding my Christmas presents captive was not bad enough, I had to fear what mischievous thing my devilish cousin Johnny would be plotting to do this Christmas. Throwing a cat on my cousin Amanda's face while screaming "Merry Christmas" and cutting my sister's hair with a pair of scissors were just a few of the pleasant gestures he had graced us with in previous years. But now, 14
years later, Johnny has grown, somewhat matured, and now has a little boy of his own named Skyler. Let me just say this, genetics can be a scary thing. He has his father's eyes and, even though he is only four, some of Johnny's same evil tendencies are shining through. At times when he looks at me with those
bright blue eyes, I cannot help but see the same devilish boy holding those scissors who plagued my dreams for years.
My family is Jewish but we are not religious and have always celebrated both traditions of Christmas and Hanukkah. My Father's aunt married a Catholic woman, and being a very close knit family, we celebrated Hanukkah, the giving of Christmas and the magic of Santa Claus.
My Mom's side of the family is less traditionally religious then my dad's side of the family. My brother, sister and I grew with Santa coming, celebrating Christmas with friends and family, while also celebrating Hanukkah through gift giving, lighting the menorah and saying prayers. My mom's family is pretty big. She is the oldest of five children, and I am blessed with many cousins.
We usually celebrate the Christmas holiday with my Mom's family. Her eldest brother's also married a Christian woman and we would celebrate the holiday at their home. Every Christmas we would get together for what we called our Chrisnukkah party. Our big family, all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents would eat a big holiday meal and then open and exchange presents in the den. It was always pretty simple but being with my big, loud, and crazy family was something quite special and I looked forward to every year.
The year of my 10th birthday, we decided to have our Chrisnukkah party somewhere real special. It was a surprise and none of the kids knew where the party was going to be. After my usual regime of falling asleep in the car, I woke up in front of a huge ballroom like hotel.
It was almost like a dream. Our party was at the Garden City Hotel, a really fancy hotel that held huge affairs, wedding parties, 90th birthdays, and the works. About 40 of my family members met for a huge fancy brunch in the hotel. We sat, ate, laughed for what felt like an eternity. The 40 of us rented one hotel room for the day, and after brunch we all crammed into the tiny room and opened presents. After the gift giving, all the kids went swimming and of course my mom had to have taken about 7,000 family pictures that day. Before I knew it, I had blinked my eyes, and the day was over.
This was by far the most memorable Chrisnukkah party we had ever had. We lived liked Kings and Queens for that one day, but even more importantly, I still remember sitting on the floor in the hotel room and looking around the room at my big, happy family. In that room nothing mattered except for all the love we had for each other. It was definitely a surreal day, not a care or problem in the world entered that hotel room. The day was all about love, family, and giving.
Looking back, it was truly the fairy tale moment in my life.
I had some trouble picking out a favorite holiday memory because all of my Christmases are the best - it
is my favorite day of the year! I my main memory is there is an iron clad rule in my house that I am not allowed to wake my parents up before 6:00 a.m. (yes, this rule still applies even though I'm 18 years old).
Typically my Dad is up at 4:00 a.m., so, it's just my mother I have to worry about. Ever since I was little
I would wake up just before 5 a.m. and count the seconds down till it was 6 a.m., or at least 5:59. Since anxiously waiting around a dark house is no fun, I insisted that I go to the 24-hour Dunkin' Donuts with my Dad. (Although I would like to remind everybody that I have an unwavering allegiance to Starbucks). He sits there and reads the paper while I eat my non-fat blueberry muffin and imagine what Santa and his helpers placed under our tree (I am indeed still a believer). The time I spend with my Dad at the break of down each Christmas is something I will cherish forever. I bet my Mom enjoys that extra hour
as well.
I LOVEEEEEEE Christmas so I have so many good ones -- I think one of my favorite traditions though is this:
Every Christmas Eve, right before we go to bed, my brother and I make sugar cookies for Santa (my brother is two years OLDER then me in case you were wondering). We take the utmost care in shaping them and making sure each individual cookie has a stunning variety of red and green sprinkles. Then we fill a large mug with cold milk and put it all by the fireplace. I mean, SOMEONE has to make sure Santa has enough fuel to make it through the night, right? And, sure enough, every Christmas morning we come to find that Santa has thoroughly enjoyed our little snack. We have done it every Christmas Eve since I can remember, and - if I have any say in it - we will continue to do it for years to come.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Soccer
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/ Women's Soccer
GK
/ Women's Soccer
F/M
/ Women's Soccer
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