By Hunter Eppley, Staff Writer
December. Finally we can say “Christmas is just around the corner.” For two glorious weeks students and teachers don’t have to worry about coming to school.
There are those of us who value this time and then there are those who would rather use this time as an excuse to go on vacation. The holidays are a time for being with family and friends, celebrating and happiness. If you can’t be happy on Christmas without leaving your home, then something has gone horribly wrong. Home is where the heart is. It’s the place that keeps you warm when it’s cold, and dry when it’s raining.
On Christmas day, I enjoy the satisfaction of waking up at 6:30 a.m., waking up my sisters, knocking on my parents’ door to wake them up, going back to sleep until 8:30, waking my parents again, taking pictures before we go downstairs, and then going to see what good ol’ St. Nick has left us. To me, that’s the American dream on Christmas. How am I supposed to enjoy the luxury of waking up everyone in the house on Christmas morning if I’m not even at my house?
I’ve traveled for the holidays before and I can’t say it was better than being home. During the winter, my grandparents leave their house in the mountains and head to their home in Florida. This means that after Thanksgiving, we really don’t see them again until spring, unless we decide to make the 13-hour drive to their house in West Palm Beach, Florida. This is 13 hours of my dad being convinced he can make the drive in 10 hours, my mom trying to feed us the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that by now are probably soggy from being in the cooler, my two sisters taking up the entire back seat, and then me – sitting in the single auxiliary seat in the trunk that pops up when there’s too many people in the car. The problem with this is that the trunk is also where we put the luggage, so I’m crammed into the small seat with no room.
One of the things I value about Christmas break is being able to hang out with my friends for longer than a weekend. If I’m at the beach, I can’t be with my friends. I prefer a holiday spent with family AND friends. Part of Christmas for me is the cold. If I ditch the cold, I feel like I’m leaving behind part of the Christmas spirit.
If you leave your house, you leave the magic of Christmas. Plus, how’s Santa supposed to find you when you’re hundreds of miles away from your home?