…whereever you are and whatever you face
these are the people who’ll make you feel safe in this world…
- Tim Minchin, “White Wine in the Sun“

We have returned from our every-other-Christmas with the Yant family.

My family is pretty secular, so Christmas for us is about food and family. We rent a huge house in the mountains that will take all 20 of us, and hang out for three days. Each household family unit is responsible for bringing provisions and cooking one meal for the whole crew. One of my uncles recently started an organic/free-range/grass-fed (depending on the animal) livestock co-op and brought one of his turkeys for dinner–it was 31 lbs.! We were on breakfast duty (two kinds of french toast, sausage, and fruit salad). There’s something very satisfying about cooking for that many people.

Equally satisfying was looking up from my book on Christmas Eve to see that everyone else in the room was reading, too. My adoptive family and I don’t have a lot in common, but we do have that.

This was John’s first Christmas with us–apart from being just a generally interesting and wonderful guy, he also speaks Sports and plays games, so it went very well.

I was commenting yesterday that we’re so lucky that we don’t have any assholes in our family. There is absolutely no one to dread–they’re all just great people and we’re happy to spend time together. I’m glad that my daughter will have cousins in the area when she goes to college next year. In my (adult) experience, sometimes the best remedy for bruises that life inflicts is family.

I hope you had a happy holiday week, too, whatever that looks like for you.