Women's Soccer Lists Their Favorite Christmas Memories - Part III

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 two 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.

Meaghan FitzGerald

As far Christmas traditions go, we FitzGeralds keep it pretty simple.

Seeing as most of our extended family lives in North Carolina, the four of us "me, Tanya, John, and Cat" just hangout around the house in Cincinnati and visit with our family friends. One thing that we do every year is watch "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life". The version of "A Christmas Carol" that we watch is rather dark and scary. I can remember many a Christmas Eves that I struggled to fall asleep not because I was excited for presents the next morning, but because I was terrified that the ghost of Jacob Marley was going to walk into my room and scream at me.

Every Christmas Day we go back to our neighbors house and have a big Christmas dinner with them. These neighbors, Bob and Sudie, are like my grandparents and have lived in Cincinnati their whole lives. In light of this, they know EVERYONE. So one year we show up for dinner and I walk into the kitchen only to find Johnny Bench, the Hall of Fame catcher who played for the Reds (when they were good). I proceeded to have dinner with him that evening "at the kids" table. He was quite the dinner date and found me equally as charming, I'm sure.

Kelly Hathorn

My family always does the 'family presents' on Christmas Eve and then the Santa presents on Christmas
morning. I remember when we were little we would get through the family presents and get straight to bed because the good old "sooner you go to sleep, sooner Santa will be here" saying worked on us like a charm. Then the next morning my oldest brother would usually be the first to wake up, which was at about 6:00 a.m., and we would all try and sneak downstairs without getting caught by my parents-- they usually won and we would be sent back to bed for a few hours before we were allowed to go racing downstairs to see what Santa had brought.

Much more recently, now that the Santa charm has worn off, my mom has developed a new tradition of drinking "Wassel"... it's a mix of apple, cranberry juice, spices, tons of things... but the funny thing is that it has now become an ongoing joke with all of our various groups of friends that on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day everyone is invited over to join us for some wassel. In fact, my friends have been talking to my mom about it via facebook for weeks now. In addition to the wassel, some friends (especially my friend Rachel!) join us every year on Christmas night to play some good old board games as well!!

Sonja Sahlsten

The weekend after Thanksgiving is when our holiday traditions begin. This first tradition is to put up our multi-colored outdoor lights. That weekend my dad always gets up on the ladder and hangs them all the way around the house. My brother, Steve, is the apprentice who walks behind my dad handing him the clips and keeping the lights untangled. Then, the next morning we wake up early and start to decorate the house. My favorite decoration is the stockings. On each step we put up a stocking for each member of our family. The stockings are hung in order from youngest to oldest. Even Snowflake, our dog, has her own stocking.

Our family's next major tradition takes place the first weekend in December. This tradition is one of my favorites; it is buying and decorating the tree. We are always on the quest for the “perfect” tree. Of course, after much deliberation, we are successful. On Saturday morning, we decorate the tree. My dad and I walk around and around the tree hanging the lights. My mom takes the ornaments out of their boxes one by one and says something about each one. We have a story for each of our plentiful ornaments.

Our Christmas Eve tradition of luminaries has long been my favorite. The whole neighborhood lines the streets with bags holding candles that, when lit, make a beautiful scene. That night, my family usually takes a long walk admiring the lights and singing Christmas carols.

Ashley Rape

I was born in Colorado even though I live in Texas now, but every Christmas we go to Denver or the mountains for Christmas or at least some of winter break. My extended family including my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins all usually meet there, as well. All of the kids and the dads usually ski or snowboard and the mom's usually shop or go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

Christmas eve we usually play charades which ends up lasting hours. It gets really amusing because of the generation gaps. My grandfather is usually coming up with clues about famous political leaders while we are making clues about the latest music or movie stars. My family is also very competitive so the game gets pretty cut-throat. Then we play catch phrase, and my grandmother still to this day (after playing for several years) always says 'can we turn that beep off' (which is the whole point of the game to not have it in your hand when it stops beeping) --so we always laugh at her. Christmas day we have a nice dinner all together and we usually have a movie marathon all day by the fire and then go sledding in the snow with my cousins.

It's just always great to be with my family and my extended family and everyone is really easygoing and likes to have a good time.