I looked forward to tasting the sweet, milk chocolate chip cookies as they came out of the oven. It is my favorite time of year, the night before Christmas.

As always, my family and I make a trip down to Hugoton, Kansas to see all my relatives on my mom’s side of the family. It was a long journey but definitely worth it. My grandma prepares a big feast on the night of our arrival. The dining room table is filled with some of my favorite foods including steak, mashed potatoes, creamed corn and more. The room had a distinct smell of pepper from the steak. It is a night to cherish because all my family that I haven’t seen in six months is finally all together.

Since we usually arrive around Dec. 22, I have to wait two days till my favorite day of the year, Christmas Eve. I fill this time by playing board games with my cousins, watching movies and socializing with my family about what exciting things have been going on in my life lately.

When Christmas Eve finally arrives, I start the day off by sleeping in and enjoying some relaxation. As 5 p.m approaches, I get ready to go to church with all my family. People of the church loudly sing “Joy to the World” with the piano playing softly in the background. Once church is over we all go back to my grandma and grandpa’s house to make our annual chocolate chip cookies, the best part of the day.

We are all assigned a job to make our family’s secret recipe chocolate chip cookies. As always, I’m the one who gets to mix the cookies and put them on the pan along with one of my cousins who helps me. One year when nobody was looking, we decided to make one huge chocolate chip cookie.

The cookie was bigger than both of our faces combined. When it came time to pull the cookie out of the oven everyone was shocked as they saw only one huge cookie. We all started to laugh because it was different from what we were used to.

When my grandma was trying to move the big cookie from a pan to a plate, a tragic thing happened. The cookie fell on the the floor and my cousin’s dog, Pixie came and started licking the whole thing. The cookie was ruined.

We didn’t want to come up empty-handed and we were out of cookie dough, so my grandma ran to the store to buy chocolate chip cookies from a box. Although the box cookies tasted nothing like our fresh baked ones it was still a great experience and bonding time I will have with all my family that I will remember forever.

by DARIAN LOUTHAN