We have returned from our Christmas away from home. It went remarkably well, considering that there were over 15 people at Christmas Dinner, all with many divergent opinions, and not one Jerry Springer moment! Fortunately, despite the fact that my husband’s parents are divorced, his mom, Dad and his wife, and my brother in law’s parents were all well behaved and cordially, even friendly at all holiday events. It was pretty comfortable for everybody, most of the time.
The funny moments of course come from the culture clashes. My bother and sister in law send their children to a religious school, and my eleven year old has been taken by the Da Vinci Code, and likes talking about ancient symbols of male and female, and whether any of this speculation about Mary Magdelene is true; my brother in law slipped and said Mary Magdelene was Jesus’ mom, not companion. Despite the oedipal giggles this engendered, we decided James should keep the theological and historical conversations away from the more religious parties of the group. Or when my brother in law’s mom kept calling me by a different name, so we started making up new names for everyone on the spot- Matt became Mark, etc.
The best thing about the holidays was that forone of the first times, I didn’t feel that I was visiting my husband’s family, versus my family- just that it was our family, together- and that was a truly wonderful feeling. I love them all, despite their quirks and idosyncracies, and it was one of those rare holiday gatherings where no one was having a snit about anything at all. I hope this is a harbinger of future holidays, and the us vs. them stuff is a thing of the past.