This winter senior Caroline Binkley plans to celebrate Christmas with her family. Each Christmas, her family of 18, including cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, join together in the Binkley residence to participate in a family tradition.

On Christmas Eve, the family goes to church before eating dinner at Binkley’s house. “We have crabs for dinner,” Binkley said. “It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.”

On Christmas morning, everyone awakes bright and early to open presents, after which all of them head to a cousins house for Christmas Brunch. “All the cousins watch a movie,” Binkley said.

A secret gift exchanging-party is then held at another cousin’s house, followed by Christmas dinner. Her favorite part of this tradition is “when we all open our Secret Santa presents because it’s fun to see what we got each other and it brings us together,” Binkley said. “One time, we got hamsters for a present and they were wrapped in a box.”

This tradition has been alive in the Binkley family for seven years. “We’ve been doing this since I was 10,” Binkley said. “That’s when I first moved to California.”

Along with this tradition comes the preparation for the event, such as baking gingerbread men and cookies. “We usually start right after Thanksgiving.” Binkley said. “I go Christmas shopping and then we usually set up Christmas lights and get our house decorated and get the stockings hung.”

Amidst the annual spirited holiday preparations, the

Binkley family has had to cope with its share of tragedies. “We used to go over to my grandma’s house for Christmas dinner,” Binkley said. “My grandma died a few weeks before when I was in eighth grade. We still had Christmas Dinner at her house for the next two years to keep the tradition alive.”

Reconnecting with your family can be very joyous and important. “This is probably the only time of the year that all of us are able to be together for three days,” Binkley said. “It’s good for us to be able to spend time with each other.”