“I am from Southern California so I don’t ever really see my family. My dad passed away about 6 years ago. That’s about the time I’ve moved up here. So I always really go home and see my mom because she is kind of lonely. My brother lives in Los Angeles and my mom lives in Orange County so I go down there for a few days. That’s where most of my childhood friends are- I mean I grew up there. You know it’s kind of a crappy drive, I don’t like to drive at all, it’s really boring and there’s nothing on either side when you look out the window but it’s worth it. During the drive, I usually like to listen to movie reviews as well as court cases because I’m interested in that stuff. I also love listening to supernatural mysteries. I’ll be there for Christmas, stay the weekend, and come back Monday or Tuesday.

I spent a long time at this little family-oriented pub but this year due to the pandemic, I don’t think I’ll stop by. That is something that has really changed. They are really good people and a lot of my friends are there, so that is really disappointing because it’s a small restaurant and I worked there for many, many years. I know everyone over there and we always would catch up, have a gift exchange, and have a couple of drinks, as well as watch some sports. I would say that the first day of break is my favorite day. 

This year I plan to buy myself some electric drums. When I go down to Orange County, I will bring my guitar and will probably play with a couple of friends. I remember the best  present I ever got on Christmas. It was a Lego pirate ship when I was 10 years old. It was the biggest one they sold at that time and I was so excited. It was the peak of happiness for a 10 year old. 

I don’t really know what we would do if we had an extra week of break. The school that I was at before had three weeks of break. But we didn’t really have much to do. So if we had an extra week of break, I would probably take a vacation although that doesn’t seem very possible this year. Maybe I would go camping. This year I want to try losing some weight. I also want to make that a goal for next year. You kids are young and your metabolism is fast. I’ve been sitting here all day long and I’ll sit here all day long tomorrow. And when I go into work I sit all day long too. So yeah, I need to walk around and start losing some weight. Maybe I will try to do some like push-ups or sit-ups or jump rope. I don’t think that I will be able to reduce my screen time while being stuck inside for a break. If everything is closed and I’m not able to talk with my buddies a lot, I’ll probably be on the screen. For 2021, my main goals are to start playing music with other people and start going to the gym more. I used to love playing music but it doesn’t feel very motivating to do so anymore. I don’t like playing or feel like playing by myself as I always played with other people. My favorite types of music are Blues, Jazz, Rock, and I love bands like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones.”

–Mr. Einfeldt

“The first holiday in winter break for my family would be Christmas. In terms of this year, it is definitely only going to be celebrating within our household to adhere to Covid-19 guidelines. In regular years, we would attend my family’s Christmas party and then my husband’s family Christmas altogether. We would exchange presents and eat really delicious meals at both parties. My favorite food at Christmas has been eating honey baked ham. Ever since I got married, my husband’s family has a tradition of eating ham and I’ve taken a great liking to it. It’s a great mixture of sweet and salty and it tastes really nice. 

A tradition that we have in Christmas is a little different than gift exchange. A big gift exchange is nice but expenses have gone higher and cost of living is getting more expensive. I think it’s more meaningful to just have your gifts and put more thought into the one gift that you’re giving each person so that’s always exciting to see people’s reaction to it. Last Christmas, it was really fun to just see my son who is only one and a half years old open his gifts and enjoy them. I’m really going to enjoy seeing that this year too. 

Some great memories I have of Christmas are when someone from my side of the family would dress up as Santa and little kids would like sitting with them. He would be in full costume and it was usually like an uncle or one year it was even my father. Other years, we also sing some Christmas carols. This holiday season I will find some books on sale. Recently, I was introduced to books by more diverse authors. I would love to increase my collection of books by diverse authors. We also bought a really tall Christmas tree this year. I think we got a great deal on Black Friday for that so it was very satisfying. A Christmas memory that stands out is around the year 2000. There was a lot of tension around Y2K and like maybe a sense of relief when nothing catastrophic happened. 

This Christmas we’re going to do a movie marathon. I watched some commercials and we’ve been paying attention to some of the new movies coming out. This Pixar movie called Soul as well as the Wonder Woman sequel seemed really nice. Although traditions are really special and it’s hard to not have the same ones this year, we should put the common good before us and avoid gathering. You may just discover new traditions you didn’t expect by just keeping it within your household. 

Some positive changes I’m looking towards this winter break is to try to stay off the screen. I think I’ve been having too much screen time and I will try my best to stay out of the screen although I know that I will have to do a little bit of grading. But I’ll just try to keep it to the necessities. I don’t want to get distracted and just browse websites and get too much screen time in. Another thing that I want to focus on is finding activities like outdoor ones or reading a physical book. Even though it might not be the first thing you want to do, it is definitely something I want to start off with.”

Mrs. Martinez

Interviews by Tanmay Lakhotia