She was tied up in dental floss next to a note signed by the tooth fairy. Our Elf on the Shelf, Bertha, was the newest addition to the strange Christmas traditions around my house.

Starting the day after Thanksgiving, once we eat our cereal, my family gets our Christmas decorations together. We start with our three trees which go around my house as we have boxes of ornaments. My sisters and I start decorating the trees while my mom works on the rest of the house’s decorations and my dad adds to his lights outside. We normally have lights hanging up in the back year round, but we go all out for Christmas.

My grandparents on my mom’s side arrive usually the week before Christmas and we spend our time in the day leading up to Christmas Eve watching movies and baking and decorating cookies. For the past four years we use a gingerbread cookie decorating set and use the leftover icing to decorate our homemade gingerbread cookies.

On Christmas Eve, my mom’s side of the family and our family exchange gifts including The Gift of Weird. The Gift of Weird is a term for the strange gifts we receive from my grandfather or that we give to him. In the past, a container of discolored soap, dish towels, a fake beard and a traffic controllers uniform have been a few of the gifts.

Christmas Day has two phases. Phase one is breakfast and the gifts from my mom, dad and sisters and phase two is visiting my grandfather’s house to see my dad’s side of the family. We exchange gifts and have lunch. After we eat, we all gather around to watch a video of the past year made by my grandfather. The video usually includes embarrassing photos of my cousins, sisters and I, all of us trying to hide our faces while laughing.