Christmas in my family is huge!! Not huge in I bought the store kind of way. Huge in every way. Bursting at the seems huge. Filled will music and laughter and chaos. A bit of organized chaos because we are suckers for tradition. We already have Christmas planned for the rest of our lives. And, just in case one of us thinks we have the option of skipping out, we better get it straight, because someone will shut that down in a second. Once the last bite of Thanksgiving dinner has been eaten, sales papers are pulled out, perfect gifts are planned, your assigned food is the same food you are always assigned, because this equation never varies.
Most of the faces I see on December 25th, have been the same faces I have seen every December 25th since I was born.Some have left and new ones have been added, but it is always the same.Like clockwork you can bet on it.You know where you can find everyone seated. The same recipes have been passed down from generations, because those recipes are what Christmas tastes like. Everyone wants to have the best gift to give the kids. After lunch you just kind of kick off your shoes and lay on the sofa with ten other people laying on or around you. You hear people talking to or over each other and every conversation can quickly escalate to a heated argument. But, by the end of the day you will have retaken photos you have posed for the last four years for, caught up on all the family news, eaten about 100 times and if you are lucky you snuck in a Nerf war with the kids. Because, that is what Christmas is to you. It is all the things that you remember for a lifetime and that you secretly never want to change.
It is the same loud and chaotic scene, wrapping paper and gifts flying everywhere.Joyful squeals and a whirlwind of madness engulfing you until you almost feel dizzy. There is no order or rhyme or reason, it is a make it up as you go system. And, to the outside world it may be flawed but in my world, it is sheer perfection.Because it fits with all the flaws that built this family, and when I look at them I still see sheer perfection.
My big family may drive me insane.There is always a crisis that is not really a crisis.No people on the planet get under my skin sometimes more than they do. But, at this time of year in a room full of crazy, I see all the reasons I never knew what lonely felt like, I see all the faces that always show up, always pick up the phone and always have my back no matter what.I see my very own wolf pack and I know deep down I would never want my Christmas any other way but the total messy bliss.
