Home for the Holidays

Oh, the Holidays are in full swing. Meals, gifts, late nights, meals, parties, a few drinks, and family. We are fortunate to live near a majority of our family and have the opportunity to see all of them multiple times a year. Still, the holidays get us all together over a few days span to laugh, eat, play, and even disagree about things. We have old, middle-aged, teens, and young’uns. Like a lot of families, we have lost a few key members and there will always be a large void that cannot be replaced. However, we continue with traditions and festivities because none of them would want it any other way. Our family is awesome, diverse, strange, funny, habitual, and like your own family, the best there is.

The group that gets to see each other regularly include Michelle, Brianna, Mom, Dad, Stella, Ken, Ruthie, GGMa, Nanny, Michelle Y, Michael, Stephanie, Tim, Tyler, McKenzie, MJ, Timmy, Addison, and Donna. This group of people are my friends, mentors, drinking partners, and full on entertainment. Each of them possess skills, passion, and love that they share in varying degrees to each of the others in the group. Between two houses about four miles apart from one another, I get the chance to socialize, pontificate, and laugh with all of them. Some prepare fantastic food, others tell delightful stories, and some just straight up make me laugh. The little ones are fun to watch grow, play, and become mesmerized with the next gift or game. Heck, sometimes they become enthralled with nothing in particular and that is even more entertaining. We can be a formal bunch but not when we are all together. It’s shorts and t-shirts and you better get your athletic shoes out because the football will be flying. Each person wants to chat, even if they are staring intently on their blue screen of life.

This group that I proudly call my family consists of current teachers, former teachers, retirees, entrepreneurs, high up managers, protectors of citizens, students, widowers, athletes, has been athletes, and want to be athletes. We love, we share, we fight, but we are always family. Since we get to see each other more frequently than the average family you would think it would be boring to get together as a unit. Actually, it is far from it. Whether it is a malfunctioning television, a collision on the field of play, bad Wi-Fi, or a disagreement about how a game is played we are still family. The collision and disagreement aren’t always synonymous with the little ones. The big kids are good at this one as well. We are a tight bunch but another cool part of being in this family is that we love bringing others who don’t share our blood into the mix. They get treated just like we treat others and if you can hang, you are welcome to stay.

Christmas is an all-day affair for this group I love with every fiber of my being. We start at our house with Michelle preparing our traditional breakfast feast. We don’t start until about 8:00 now that Brianna is older. If you have little ones, hang in there, they will age out of 5:45 stocking calls. After a wonderful time opening gifts and eating we do a quick clean up and then pack it up to move the circus to my Dad and Stella’s house. This is the second half of the day. There are always brunch items to snack on and the shenanigans begin anew with the rest of the crew. We watch as the wee one’s devour their stockings and wait impatiently for the gifts to be handed out. Tyler is the lead elf and over the past couple of years, MJ has availed himself as quite the helper elf. Packages fly around the living room like an Amazon warehouse. There are timeouts called, sorry, once a coach always a coach, so that paper and gifts on the floor don’t become one. It seems like it will never end, but then, poof, and it is over. A quick trip home to alleviate the mess that has been left and it is immediately back for the remaining festivities. There are boat rides, football of varying degrees, new toys to play with, conversations to be had, some are deeper than others, and for Dad it may mean a nap or two. A second delicious meal is served, and if there is time after there might be more outside activities.

After such an exhilarating day you would think this would be a great conclusion. Oh, how wrong you would be. For years this just meant that it was time for the Nerf wars to begin. However, this year we had game night. Young, old, and in-between commenced to battling it out for some long hours. I almost forgot, the sangria was also flowing with a smoothness that made the evening even longer. At the conclusion of the battle, the victor staggered to his feet proclaiming his effort. I hate losing, but the battle was fair, incredibly fun, and just awesome to see so many of us having fun around a table with no phones to interfere. My little brother, Tyler, defeated all his older siblings, their better halves, and even two of their kids. It was time to call it a night, even though it was early into the next day. At 12:45 I put my head on my pillow, kissed my wife good night, and slept quickly thinking about how lucky I am to have the family I have.

Many times during the year I get to see them, sit and talk with them, but rarely do I get to enjoy them just as great friends. I love each of them, even when they may be hard to love. I think they probably feel the same way because I know, with my comments, that I am often hard to love. Time will pass, we will have to adjust seating again and again, but the family will continue to move forward with passion, grace, and the desire to love fully. Thank you all for your love and thank you for making every holiday we spend as a family unit one that I will always cherish. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the crew that keeps me honest, smiling, and wanting more from life. Let’s do it again and keep chasing the dreams. Don’t let them go!

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