The weather for Christmas day this year was strange and a just a tad eery: hot and humid with brief flashes of sun alternating with brief showers, ending the day with a spectacular lightning show and an hour long torrential downpour that included hail the size of large marbles.
Christmas often brings out the best in people, but it can also increase stress and anxiety and tension between relatives. Spending the day with Matt's family was something I used to feel quite apprehensive about (and was always exhausted upon leaving). 14 years later and I look forward to it, getting lost in the hustle and bustle, enjoying a glass of wine, watching my children play with their cousins, pull the bons bons and pick at their food (before the inevitable unravel of emotion at the end of a long lead up after too much food/sugar/stimulation and not anywhere near enough sleep). I have learned (sometimes the hard way) not to take anything too seriously. But for others the tensions run deeper, with a history I do not share and cannot understand. Even though I have been well accepted into the family I will always remain somewhat of an outsider and their relationships I think will always be mysterious. The interactions of those involved in my Christmas 2011 were a little like the weather of the day. Unpredictable, fraught, angry, ambivalent, but warm nonetheless. There was laughter, tears, love. Love. Love. And wine. There is always wine.
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