The holidays are all about gathering with family and friends and celebrating traditions that we hold close to our hearts. We gather with loved ones to enjoy time together, to remember the past, and to look forward to the future. Whether our holiday traditions are generations-old or recently created, small and personal or planned on a grand scale, we find them all interesting and heartwarming.
This year, we asked team members to share a brief description of their holiday traditions—and we hope that this first year of posting team traditions will become a holiday tradition for The Cuyahoga Group! Thank you to everyone who participated this year!
Lauren Rafferty, Marketing: I love decorating for Christmas and I always put my tree up before Thanksgiving! I spent this past weekend decorating.
Carla Variglotti, Vice President: I love a good holiday sweater. Every year I try to buy myself a new holiday sweater and will rotate the different sweaters throughout Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day!
LaShawn Ortiz, Administrative Assistant:
Every Christmas Eve night we go to my parents’ home in our Christmas PJs. As a tradition, we open presents at midnight; everyone takes turns opening gifts. We have a family prayer and we top the night off by having a huge family-style breakfast then watch the movie, A Christmas Story.
Lee Black, Administrator:
On Thanksgiving we go to a local park in the morning and play football. Both of my brothers are the quarterbacks on the opposite teams; the winning team gets the trophy for the year. We invite any friends or family that want to join us! Another tradition is that every year, we host the family Christmas party at my house, and my husband dresses up as Santa. Instead of boots he usually wears his Nike or Jordan slides lol. Everyone gets a photo with Santa and even the adults get a goody bag from Santa Black.
Marlene Raulston, Manager of Dining Services:
Last year we cut down our own Christmas Tree…. from the front yard! Once we got the tree inside and decorated, we found no evidence of critters, or bugs, coming from the tree. We did find an empty bird nest!
Lisa Casini, Marketing/Customer Service:
Every year, my daughter and I set aside a day in December for ‘cookie day’ – where we spend the day baking dozens of holiday cookies. In the last couple of years, we’ve added chocolate covered pretzels to the list. Even minor kitchen mishaps add to the fun and great memories.
