The Gift of Family

Firstly for me Christmas is a spiritual holiday, celebrating the birth of Christ. But even as an adult this celebration of my faith is overshadowed by the excitement of waking up Christmas morning to a house full of blessings. First of all I am surrounded by my family. There is no place in the world for me that is as comfortable as my mother's house on Christmas morning with my brother making coffee and his children running circles around mine. My mother, true to character, filled the living room to overflowing with gifts of all shapes and sizes. There are no generic gifts under her tree. She has carefully and thoughtfully planned out Christmas gifts for all of us that I am sure takes her the entire year to wrap! We sit around her table for Christmas breakfast, which is traditionally Eggs Benedict and the room resonates with our laughter. The joy runs so deep.

There were a few years where I felt overwhelmed by this outpouring. When we go home for Christmas we are surrounded by four seperate families, as both James and I come from families of divorce. We travel from household to household over the Christmas holidays while our parents and siblings pour their love onto us. We are surrounded by generous gifts and meals but what strikes me most is how we are surrounded by intimacy. This intimacy of family and friends comes from a deep knowledge and love of one another. That is not to say that our families come free of bumps and bruises. There are some family members I do not know as well as others. There are sometimes gaps in conversation that I wish I knew how to fill. But there is an intimacy that grows from sharing Christmas traditions and it is demonstated in the sharing of meals, the exchange of gifts, the singing of carols and the free flow of conversation. I will gladly travel from household to household over the Christmas holidays to share in this gift of family. It is a gift that I do not want to take for granted.