Holiday Tradition

In my family we have many small traditions such as having sparkling cider at thanksgiving or having birthday dinners. My favorite tradition that we have is Christmas Eve though. On Christmas Eve we have close to twenty five relatives come over for dinner and a game. Now tis dinner is no ordinary dinner and it is the same every year. The dinner is clam chowder and chili in bread bowls. we also have several appetizers. This dinner may sound lame, but it has to be one of my favorites ever. Each year all of the kids go and mess around in our down stairs. Then when we get hungry we go up stairs for snacks. My personal favorite snack is the "Pig in a Blanket" and my grandmother always makes it. She uses little hotdogs with cheese in them and wraps them in dough. When you put these in your mouth you fell like you just had a little slice of heaven because they melt in your mouth. Later we sit down to eat and there is an "adult table" and a "kids table", which is weird because we are all over 18. The chili and cider pack a one two punch to your hunger and fill you.

Then my favorite time, game time. We call this the "Dollar Game", because each person brings five one dollar gifts. Then they are all stuck in the middle and we role dice for them. When the presents are gone we have a stealing round of 5 minutes when if you roll doubles you get to steal and gift as long as it hasn't been stolen more then 3 times. Now this game doesn't seem that fun but with my family it is a blast. The fun starts with picking out the gifts, which is hard but rewarding if you find a funny gift. I remember a few years ago my grandfather bought crappy cd cases but he put scratch tickets in them. No one wanted them at first until they found the tickets. So the next year I found fake scratch tickets, and I stuck them right in. as the game progressed my cousins girlfriend saw them and went after them. She ended up with three and when the game ended she started to scratch them. She gave us a play-by-play, like "Oh, I have one ten" then "I have two, I only need one more!", and Finally "I WON TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!!!". Now half of the family knew about it and was laughing, but the other half was excited and jumping for joy and giving her hugs. The other half was asking if they could have 100 dollars while trying not to laugh. Then she decided to read the back and saw that she could only claim the prize "in her dreams" and everyone started to laugh. This was the funniest and best tradition that my family has. All in all this is what makes out Christmas Eve so fun.