Family Holidays!

As we gather together for the holidays, we often swell with expectations, with glorious ideas about how perfect the holiday will be.  We plan our menu.  We package our gifts.  We buy our plane tickets.  We are filled with grandiose ideas of a Normal Rockwell gathering of like minds and cheerful children.  But we’re often wrong.  The holidays are a huge stress, and it seems to bring out the worst in sibling relationships and child insubordination.  It’s a giant roasting pot of familial chaos.

I love my crazy family.  I love my brothers and sister.  We were somehow thrown into life together despite our obvious and riotous differences.  We had no choice in the matter.  We have staunchly different beliefs and parenting and political views.  We have different dietary habits and chemical balances.  We probably should not be friends.  But we are.  We love each other fiercely. 

And so, I’m setting a new expectation for this coming holiday season.  I’m expecting a little frustration.  I’m expecting an argument or two.  I’m expecting that everyone will bring to the table a little bit of crazy with their favorite dish.  But I still have high hopes for a delicious menu.  And I’m also expecting hugs and laughter and ridiculously competitive rounds of Trivial Pursuit.  I know I’ll bake a lot and hope they’ll love it.  So, I guess I’m expecting a much more fun party than a Normal Rockwell painting.  I guess I’m expecting a real family.