Weathering the Holidays

By King Harris
I don’t know about your Christmas celebrations, but I hope they were as inspiring and joyful as mine.
There was a time in my life when I used to shake and shudder at the thought of getting together with certain members of the family during the holiday season, you know, the outspoken, well-oiled uncle or the born-again stepmother proselytizing in tongues.
Those days of angst and expectations are long gone, I am pleased to report, as are the months and years of miscommunication and indifference. Today my immediate family, aside from my wife Sara, include my older sister Ann, who lives in Greece; my younger brother James, who, with his wife Shadow, live in Massachusetts where they spawned two children now adults; and my stepsister Lynn married to Bruce and living in Northern California.
All, except James, I haven’t seen or talked to in years, a situation I suppose I could blame on distance, but in this hectic day and age of technology, that wouldn’t stand up in any court.
So this year we all decided to put away any and all baggage, and meet up with one another on Ann’s 75th birthday a week ago Wednesday at a Thai Restaurant in Mill Valley, Calif.
Ann flew over from Greece, James couldn’t make it which made him extremely envious (as he is prone to get whenever he missed a family occasion, especially this one), but Lynne did arrive, along with several cousins from my father’s side of the brood, and Ann’s daughter Elizabeth.
The Thai diner, much to the delight of birthday girl Ann who adores Oriental food but can’t ever find it in Greece but still hasn’t forgotten how to order, which was of great benefit, or else we all would still be there today trying to figure out what to eat.
We didn’t have a lot of time, but all of us recognized each other and made strong connections catching up after a lengthy passage of time. It really was a marvelous reunion, with nary a resentment, as might be expected in some family get-togethers; simply complete abandon and acceptance.
Following good-byes and well wishes, that night we celebrated the Yuletide with Sara’s side of the family at her father’s house in nearby Larkspur. This event was made special by the appearance of Sara’s younger brother Art, who had been somewhat estranged from his father Bill for the past two years, so their meeting took on a significant turn for the positive.
As usual, Bill’s wife Susan, who is also an accomplished gourmand, provided the holiday feast, which was consumed rather quickly by other members of the family including son Sean and his partner Lenora, and Susan’s sister Karen. But it was more than gratifying to see Art and his father together again.
Since my sister Ann was spending more than a week in Northern California, I had the opportunity of spending time with her the next day. We had a terrific time, talking about our childhood in the countryside, our parents and their ensuing divorce, which caused a tremendous rift and other negative consequences, and our lives after that.
Considering what all of us went through, not just in my family but in Sara’s as well, I can look back and realize that we all turned out reasonably well. Now that I’m getting older, I have begun to understand how important families really are, especially for the support they can offer, even if they live in another country of the world.
I asked Ann why she chose to live in Greece of all places? “I toured the area several years ago, and did like Portugal a lot, but for some reason I just ended up in Greece. You must come over. It’s beautiful. You can swim where I do in the summer,” she said, pointing her finger at a picture of the Mediterranean shoreline. I just might do it, and bring her some Chinese food.
Sara and I headed home that Friday, where it rained all the way down, from Larkspur to Arroyo Grande. As I saw the wiper blades attacking the windshield, I thought about how cleansing it was. And how we managed at the same to conquer the stormy weather of our past.