We made it “home” safely, and other than a three-hour delay at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, we didn’t experience any trouble. Of course we could have driven in the time that we waited for the plane to be serviced, but it all turned out well in the end. Jared and Michal and I passed the time chatting and entertaining one another with relative good humor and patience. They each have 20 plus years of Christmas travel under their belts and are now accustomed to the occasional hiccup in the generally smooth flow of departures, arrivals, and layovers. Still, it’s a bit easier traveling with two twenty-somethings than in the days when as a single mom I drove with them the several hundred miles between our home in Michigan and Washington DC where we spend every other Christmas with my sisters and their families.
I am thankful to my niece for picking us up at the airport and conveying us and all our stuff to my brother’s (her father’s) house. Tomorrow we’ll be joined here by one of my sisters and her family and will connect with my other sister and her family who’s staying with my other brother and his family. Let me clarify some of the numbers. I have five siblings, three sisters, each of whom lives in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area and two brothers here in Indiana where we celebrate Christmases when we’re not in DC. We all pile into my two brother’s houses, displacing my nieces and nephews from their respective rooms, and all of the “kids” sprawl onto air mattresses and sleeping bags in various other rooms throughout the house. We’ll gather for dinner at one house or the other and when everyone shows up there can often be anywhere from 21 to 30+ people. It is wonderful pandemonium. I will be writing about that for the next few days, no doubt. Bear with me.
What I love most is looking at these rooms full of some of the most important people in my life. People whom I have either known my whole life or I’ve known them their whole lives. I savor the noise they make, the conversations and funny stories they share, the remarkable resemblances and mannerisms between my siblings and between them and their offspring. I am grateful each time we are together and exceedingly grateful that, in spite of the occasional disagreement or spat between this person and that, by and large there is a tremendous amount of love and respect amongst us. I’m not sure how rare or common such closeness is among family and extended family, but I sure don’t take it for granted. I thank God constantly for them each and all.
I’m looking forward to the next few days. My mind will be photographing all that happens (I now regret deciding not to haul my video camera out here) and chronicling it, in my heart if not every day in my blog or journal. I am grateful for arriving safely and for enjoying the moments throughout the time I’m here. May each person reading this blog and all people find a measure of joy and happiness through connection with other beings during this holiday season. So be it!
