by Izamary Rios

It’s that majestic time of the year again- holiday time. Despite the fact that I hate the cold, holidays are my favorite time of the year. I love getting to spend time with my family, but for most of you that know me- you would agree that holidays are my favorite time of the year because I get to eat non-stop

I cannot describe my love for food- especially holiday food. Every year we spend Thanksgiving with my mother’s side of the family. We do a potluck type of dinner. Our usual Thanksgiving dinner consists of turkey, mash potatoes and gravy, shrimp pasta, pozole, pumpkin pie and some other type of desert. We all sit around the dinner table- talk about our year, and things we hope to accomplish in the upcoming year.

After we are all done eating, we all make tamales and buñuelos together. We then play a game of charades, and whomever loses as punishment has to clean the kitchen. After that, we all sit in the living room drinking cocktails. The next morning, we all get up bright and early and we sit around the table and eat tamales, buñelos and drink coffee. For the remainder of the day, we watch TV in our pajamas.

According to the New York Times, during the holidays most people gain on average one pound. Although this may not seem like a lot, the average person gains two pounds a year. This is very important because most people never manage to lose the one pound they gained during the holidays.

This becomes an even bigger problem for college students, like myself, who are away from home, and wait all year long to go home and eat delicious food. When I go home for the holidays all I want to do is eat massive amounts of gourmet food resulting in me gaining a pound in week. Holiday food is the best food there is. Regardless of how many pounds I gain during the holidays nothing will stop me from eating all the delicious food being cooked at my house.

“Cookies are my favorite thing to eat during the holidays,” student Ciera Colson said. “I like the atmosphere that you feel during this time of year, but working in retail has changed the holiday meanings for me.”

Needless to say, holidays are my favorite time of the year because of the food. During every holiday party you can most likely find me in the kitchen with a glass of wine in one hand and a tamale in another.