 | | Andrea Acosta, 11, is the winner of the Fort Bend County Extension Service's annual Family of the Year contest. She is surrounded by her parents, Gerald and Grace, and her sister, Briana, 8. (Staff photo by Denise Adams)
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| Three words describe 11-year-old Andrea Acosta's family - happiness, joy and love. The winner of the Partners for Parenting through the Fort Bend County Texas Cooperative Extension Service's Family of the Year contest for the secondary division counts herself blessed because she has a family that laughs together and, most importantly, loves together.
After Andrea's teacher at St. Laurence Catholic School in Sugar Land asked her class to enter the contest, Andrea said she put a lot of thought about the importance of her family in her life before she put her pen to the paper.
"I hadn't thought a lot about it before, but the assignment made me think," said Andrea. She worked on her paper at home, and said her thoughts included the fun she has in her immediate family and the joy evident every day in her extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins.
Her mother's aunts are a fun, happy group of women who spread sunshine everywhere they go, said Andrea, especially on holidays, and her face lights up when she talks about family get-togethers.
"They're not boring at all," she said. "At Halloween, they dressed up like Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor."
Andrea's mother, Grace, said Andrea turned down an invitation to a friend's sleepover party on Halloween because she wanted to see what surprises her aunts had in store.
At Easter, the entire family gathers, and the aunts hold a much-anticipated Easter bonnet contest. They work for hours, creating a hat to outshine everybody else's creation.
"They model the hats all through the yard as we play the Easter bonnet song. There are two categories, 'Most Beautiful' and 'Most Original,'" Andrea explained, describing the boisterous back yard party. The men have a "Loudest Shirt" contest, and the girls help their fathers decorate a shirt for the contest.
No matter who wins, Andrea said everybody receives the same prize - lots of hugs.
"Everything in our family turns into a big, festive party," said Grace, and that includes birthday parties. It's a tradition to have a piņata at all birthday celebrations, with the birthday boy or girl getting the first swing at the piņata, working up to the eldest child taking the last swing.
Andrea has always known her family is special, but her mother didn't realize the impact having a close, extended family had on Andrea until she wrote the essay. However, Andrea's father, Gerald, realized how special his wife's family was from the very beginning.
"When we started dating, I fell in love with her family," he said. "It was always a happy time, being with them. I fit right in with her family from the very beginning. I appreciate them, and I know how special they are."
Most of Grace's aunts are Folklorico dancers who perform the traditional Hispanic dances in public, and the professional dancers always dance at family occasions. Andrea's grandmother, Veronica Garcia, always bakes a special cake or pie for all family occasions, and Grace said celebrations are not complete without grandma's special dessert.
Christmas is a holy and special time for their family. Andrea's aunt, Maria Acosta, always comes to the Acosta house before Christmas to bake cookies for the holiday.
"We make corn flake cookies, and we bake and bake and bake until there's not an inch left on our dining room table," said Andrea, breaking into a huge smile. "Our house smells like corn flake cookies all day long."
The family displays the baked cookies on a table in the living room in anticipation for the family celebration. All day long, relatives arrive, carying their own special desserts, from Hershey's Kisses Cookies to apple pie, Andrea's favorite.
Out-of-town relatives gather at the Acosta's house to celebrate Christmas together. On Christmas Eve, the children play games and also open their gifts from each other.
"The children are so eager," said Andrea. "Before we go to bed, we set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and by 11 p.m., we're all asleep."
Christmas Day finds the family at her great Aunt Maria's house, where they play with toys, visit with each other and Andrea has the opportunity to play with her cousin Madeline, one of her favorite relatives. The Acostas celebrate New Year's Eve with fireworks in the back yard, promising each other the next year will be just as filled with love and family as the year before.
Although holidays are a source of family gatherings, during the year, Andrea said her family never misses an opportunity for fun.
"On Friday nights, we'd have disco night with my daddy," she said, as her dad blushed. "We'd dance and dance, and sometimes my sister and I would dress up."
The Acostas take time to go out to dinner on Friday nights, giving mom a chance to rest from household chores. They have a favorite Mexican restaurant where they love to eat, and Andrea's uncle, Bert Acosta, often joins the family.
In addition to laughing together, the Acosta family works together. When their great-grandmother needed pecans picked up from her yard, everybody in the family drove to Victoria and worked together, filling garbage bag after garbage bag with pecans, singing and laughing as they worked.
In order for a family this large to stay together, both in work and in play, there's a key ingredient, and the Acostas said it's love, from the grandparents down to the youngest cousin.
When Gerald first met Grace, he said he fell in love with her family, especially their ability to find sunshine in every situation.
"I really appreciate her family because they're so special," he said. "There's a happiness and joy in her family."
Andrea's parents weren't surprised when she won the Family of the Year contest in her age group, because both their daughters are honor roll students who have a strong work ethic.
"We're blessed in so many ways," said Gerald. "We're rich with love and family."
A quiet girl, Andrea's parents say she's an "old soul" because she appreciates traditions and insists on following those traditions every year.
If Andrea could choose one word to describe her family, she said it would be "unique," because everybody in her family understands what it's like to laugh together as well as cry together, and that ability to love is what makes the Acostas the family of the year.
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