What Christmas Is Really About by Anna C.

My name is Avalon and I am fifteen years old.  For the past fifteen years of my life, I've been having Christmas with my dad's side of the family. But we moved just last week and this year we are having it with my mom's side of the family. I don't really know my mom's side, very well because it's humongous. My older brother, Aaron, told me that my mom's side of the family is crazy. I don't think I'm prepared for that.

 

Anyways my mom and dad love Christmas, and it's not that I don't like Christmas it's that I don't like how much my parents love Christmas. But on the plus side since I live in California now, no more miserable winters like we had in Minnesota.
We came right in the middle of Christmas break so I don't have any friends yet because I haven't been to school. My parents always spoil my brother and I for Christmas, which most people would think that I would be happy about but I'm not. The reason I am not is because my parents seem to forget that I'm not a six year old girl who still plays with Barbies. Like, I'm not kidding. Last year, my mom bought me a bike and it was purple, so like, yeah, whatever, I like purple, until I saw the big bell on the front with Barbie’s face on it. I still have that bike. I just pried off the bell one night and told my parents it fell off. Anyway, so yeah, they are pretty bad at giving presents, but this year I was sure to make a Christmas list. I know Christmas isn't about the presents and it's about family and giving. And I'm all about that, like giving to the charity and what not, but let's be real: receiving presents are pretty nice too.

 

So, tomorrow is Christmas and today is Christmas eve. I am completely dreading seeing my family tomorrow if my brother is right about how crazy they are. But it will still fun, because I don't have any friends right now. My brother is my only friend and I'm okay with that, he's really not a loser sometimes. My family and I had a gingerbread making contest and it was my brother and I against my mom and dad. We only had ten minutes to create the best gingerbread house ever and, let me tell you, it is not easy to frost the whole gingerbread roof with your brother screaming at you, "C'mon, Avalon, you can do it!" But we finally finished and there was no way for us to really pick a winner but, to be honest, my brother and I's looked like a trash can that had fallen off the end of the curb. So, I'm gonna go with my mom and dad won. It was 9 o'clock on December 24th and a family tradition that we always do is we get to open one present on Christmas eve, so, first, I opened mine and it was some nail polish my brother had gotten me. Then, my brother opened my present to him and I got him this new Madden 16 video game. Then my parents gave each other their presents, and we went to bed. I fell asleep right away and I had this dream. This dream was an interesting dream, and it gave me the greatest idea. So when I woke up on Christmas day, I ran to my parents and told them the amazing idea! It was 8 am, and we started driving down the street to Target. We picked up a bunch of toys and brought them to the orphanage. In my dream, I realized that Christmas is about giving. I encourage you guys all next Christmas to give to the people in need. One step at a time we are a making this world a better place.