For 360 days out of the year, my family and I never eat sugar-filled cereal. At my house, we only eat Cheerios, Rice Chex, Rice Crispies and Honey Bunches of Oats. Starting on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving break until Sunday, each member of my family gets their own box of sugary cereal to eat for breakfast each morning.

The tradition began when I was eight back when I still lived in California. We ate our boxes of cereal on Christmas Eve morning through the day after Christmas. My family moved to Texas in the summer of 2009 and our tradition would have to change.

My grandparents on my mom’s side now would stay at our house over Christmas vacation and our sugary cereal would not sit well with my grandmother. She fed my sisters and I organic ice cream and homemade coleslaw with pinto beans. Watching the five members of my family stuff their faces with cereal that has the sugar content of a candy bar would cause lectures on the importance of nutrition to ensue.

My mother decided to move our face stuffing to Thanksgiving break when no relatives would be at our house. From that Thanksgiving break on each member of my family picks out their own full sized box of a sugary cereal of their choice. So far our staples have been Trix, Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops, Fruity Pebbles and Crunch Berries. We all sit down and compare the amount of sugar to figure out which one of us picked the least healthy box.

This year brings a new twist to our normal tradition. As a family, all of us will choose a wild card box to share for the break. The wild card box will be a cereal that we all want to try, for example Reese’s Puffs, but don’t want to waste our full box on in case it is gross. I am sure this addition will become a staple, and as for right now, I need to start thinking about my cereal choices.