My favorite Christmas tradition

By Allegra Smith

​My favorite Christmas tradition is when my mother, sister, and I make food for our family Christmas party. Each year, we make the same family recipes—artichoke dip, green bean casserole, frosted Christmas cookies—and everyone has their specialty. It's always comforting to be working on chopping the vegetables while my sister mixes the chip dip, or taking shifts to cut out dough with our favorite star and bell cookie cutters. My dad even gets in on the action when we make the scalloped potatoes: he and my mom each know a part of the recipe and work together to fill a big glass casserole dish with layers of sliced potatoes, minced onions, and cream sauce. My sister has a job in the entertainment industry and has worked through the holidays for the past few years, so we wait to do all the food prep and cooking until she gets home on December 26th or 27th. It doesn't really feel like a proper holiday until she's there and we're all together laughing at the frosting and sprinkle combinations we're putting on the snowman cookies. I pray that this Advent season we can work together to accomplish bigger and better things than we could do separately, and that we can make time for laughter while doing it. 

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