Did not check grammer, deal with it

I remember waiting all night, patiently for it to be eleven thirty. Playing cards, eating tamales, making snowmen to pass the time. At eleven thirty, we would be forced out of the house, to go look at Christmas lights. Like clockwork we returned, a minute passed midnight. Promised every year we would not miss him, but every year he had just left. The traps we spent the entire afternoon on were sprung but alluded, the cookies gone, only the cookie we spiked with sleeping pills remained. The stockings were stuffed and beneath the tree presents were sprawled in heaps. As time went on, we tried less and less to catch this ninja like man who delivered toys and every year less and less of us still believed and every year christmas became more of a formality, less of a family tradition. This year christmas left me heartbroken, at least christmas at the house did. There was a shortage of family, no one young enough to still believe in Santa could make it so the gifts were set under the tree as we arrived instead of cleverly hidden until the house was mostly empty. The stockings remained unfilled for the entire night. No plan to capture santa was devised, no pinata hung in the living room, no intense game of snowball tag planned. We all just sat around the table playing card games and eating tamales as the clocked ticked away. Presents were opened, we shuffled off to mass, got drunk, fell asleep. It just was not the same tradition that I look forward to every years as soon as the leaves change. Christmas was not christmas at all this year, it was more of I have to to do this family stuff before I can do what I want. Luckily, christmas has one more shot at redemption, and I am looking forward to see how it does.