Hot warm rice with milk in mugs being handed out to each person. Every Christmas, my family reunites with my childhood friend’s family. We bring in presents and spicy chicken. We eat tamales, pozole, rice, chicken, mashed potatoes, black beans, and coleslaw. As we eat, the little kids are running around and playing. Impatient to open presents, we eat up as quickly as we can.

We tell each other funny stories as we eat and win the money we can. We play Mexican bingo, betting on money and whoever loses has to do a challenge. Such as dancing with a bottle on their head or trying to remove the paper underneath the cup full of water.

The moment everyone waits for comes after these games we play. We pickup each present by calling the name of the person who gave it and who it’s for. We make sure they open up their present and thank the person. Everybody, excited by the gifts they received, put them away ready for the next part.

We clean up all the paper wraps and start the dance challenge. One person is the DJ, which is usually the oldest person. Everybody gathers on the dance floor including the little kids too. We start up with a light game first, freeze dance. They start playing the music as everybody starts dancing too. When the music stops we have to freeze if not you’re out. The game usually lasts for about 30 mins to an hour. Then the most exciting part is the dance battle. Everyone dances at the same time while the DJ watches and decides who stays and who doesn’t. As everybody dances, everyone is having so much fun. There are times where some of us slip because of dancing too hard which are the moments we all laugh so much. The winner of the dance battle gets a secret gift and has to do a speech in front of everybody as if they were on a TV show. This is my holiday tradition, to always have fun no matter what.