Christmas Traditions in 2020
This year has really been a shit show, but here we are with 26 days left in the year. So what are we going to do? With COVID numbers continuing to rise, the Holidays are looking a bit differently for everyone. The state of California has officially started to shut down, and at this point I’m expecting Florida to start to do the same (preferably after Enzo’s birthday).
We are already planning to have the same gathering we did for Thanksgiving, which was just my immediate family (mom, dad, sisters, brother-in-laws, aunts and uncle). It was perfect, and I’m actually (for the first time ever) looking forward to Christmas Eve. We are going to still do the “caja china” which is the Cuban pig roast tradition. My dad, uncle, and brother in law will be doing it this year. Although I don’t eat the pig, it is a blast to be around. The best part is that I won’t have to get super dressed up; I’ll get to be comfortable and wear something functional, for a change.
Fast forward to Christmas morning, I usually wake up earlier than I’d like to, and I vegetate around the house opening and giving the gifts I bought for the house. Around noon, we head over to my parents house and my sisters, brother in law, and parents open presents and have a Christmas brunch. In the afternoon, the family comes over to my house and we host a small Christmas dinner type of “thing”. My cousins come over and we exchange gifts, etc.
Honestly, I love waking up on Christmas morning and running to my stocking, which I made with my Madrina when I was like five years old, and taking out whatever nonsense that my aunt puts in there. Usually, it’s a bunch of scratch-off lotto tickets (last year I won like $25). It’s the only tradition that I absolutely love, and I get insulted if my aunt forgets to stick something in there.
When I lived in Orlando, on my own, I had a tree that I would put up and decorate. Once I had the gifts wrapped and such, they would go under the tree and I would put up the stockings that I had bought myself, Enzo, and Minnie and Milo. I wouldn’t put anything in our stockings, but I would put treats for the dogs even though we never actually spent Christmas in Orlando. I only did that when I first started at Disney, and it was because I had to work.
Looking back, I actually miss the push and pull of being in Orlando and having to come down to Miami…or staying there, comfortable, alone. I’m a total loner when it comes to the holidays, even more so since Enzo.
