There are a lot of ways to make sure everyone is having fun at family time. From my family’s celebration of Novena, a Colombian tradition, to reunions with my relatives every two years, we gather to spend more time together and show our love to each other. Family traditions may include delicious foods and we may honor special people like my grandpa because he was a great man and we pray to never forget him. As I enjoy my my family traditions, I find it very important to take care of and include everyone.
Last year my family and I went to a party in humid but beautiful Modesto, California. At the party I saw smiles on everyone’s faces around the room. Suddenly I heard, “Waahh, waah, waaaaaah!” I walk closer to where I heard the noise. Oh no! The baby is crying! I look around. What could I do? I had to do something, right? I found her mom. “Oh, it’s okay,”, she says. “She is just hungry! I’ll just go and nurse her very quickly.” I was relieved that no one was sad. I went back to having a good time, that is how you take care of others and yourself!
In honor of my brother’s middle school graduation, (Alejandro) we hosted a party at our house. Some people were playing a family game called Ticket to Ride. Ticket To Ride is a fun game about, “strategy”. Strategy is used in many board games, in this one you have a certain color and you pick a ticket from the ticket pile. On the ticket card, it will have the point from where you start to where you need to get to. You should have about 4 cards in your hands and they are all cards of train color’s, (do not let anyone see). Then you will also see 4-5 face-up cards on the edge of the board. Now, let’s say you had 2 orange cards in your hand, and 1 white, and 1 blue. If there were, 2 orange cards on the edge of the deck and the road to one place to another is 4 orange trains, then you can trade your white, and blue train cards in for the 2 other cards you want. But let’s say there are no colors you want or have, then there is a pile of trains and you draw 1 card from the pile, (also there are wild cards). And every train track has a certain amount of points, and if you get 4 trains on a track then you get 7 points. And if you get 7 points, then you move your piece on the rim of the board 7 points up.
Anyway… we were all included and had our own pieces to the game. If someone did not then I would ask if anyone was up to share. I was happy to see that there was no excluding. One person wanted to play alone and he just sorted the problem out, so he could join the next round. Then there was another person, who wanted to play, but had to leave soon so he couldn’t play the next round. So, what we did was my cousin shared the game with him, and by the time he had to leave, the game was just finished.
During my Christian/Colombian family’s Novena, a tradition where we celebrate Jesus, I help out a lot and feel happy. I sing and read prayers. My cousin and I help the adults by distracting the younger kids so the adults can have their “ADULT TIME!” Because I am only part Colombian, I barely understand one-fourth of one page of the Bible. For some reason think that it would be inappropriate or disrespectful to interrupt the prayers to ask what words mean. Some of the prayers in the Bible are about, what Jesus did to help others in need, how we shall wash away our sins, him we should do that by honoring Adam and Edith, and last of all we also pray about how great Jesus’s parents were to give birth to such an honored son. So I, a half Colombian and a young girl, do not know this tradition as well as others. I can ask my parents about these words, because they are my parents and they understand if I don’t know the words and know I’m not trying to be offensive. The food there has to be traditional like, burritos, a kind of soup called Sancocho.
These are my family traditions and how we include everyone. I think any kind of family tradition you are doing, you should try to help out in any way that you think you can. With a perspective, I’m Amélie.