The holiday seasons are an interesting concept. Everybody who's related decides that they should all get together, back in some location that they unanimously decided to leave (by and large), and try their best to get along, sometimes for an extended period of time. Now, that's fine and good, except that in most families, this getting-along stasis was never achieved when everybody lived together. IN most famlies (that I know), everybody getting along means everybody not seeing each other regularly. Therefore, the precedent is bad. How is a family going to get along well during a holiday season when they never succesfully did during any other season when everybody was living all together? So, in the spirit of the holiday season, everybody tries and hopes that for a few days, everybody can put aside their differences and forget the past and focus on making right now a good moment. Easier said than done. It inevitably leads to dad yelling at mom over some minor incident, or sister punching brother in the arm because, like always, he's a total jerk. Therefore, the families getting together for the holidays premise is flawed. Assuming that your family is like mine.
Fortunately, we avoided the whole issue this year by all being spread to the four corners of the world. Lilith is in Oregon, mom in Potsdam, dad in Ottawa, Rebecca with me, and Gabe in Phuket, Thailand. Right now, I'm hugely worried about Gabe, because him being in Phuket, Thailand, during Christmas means that he was in Phuket, Thailand during that huge earthquake in the ocean, and that he was in Phuket, Thailand, during the huge tsunamis that destroyed much of the city (apparently). So keep Gabe in your thoughts, even if you don't know him, because he was there when it happened, and we haven't heard from him yet, and basically I'm about to have an aneurism from occupying my mind with him so much and this typing and reading the news and waiting for the time to pass so I can call my parents is the only sort of therapy available to me right now. Also, if you know anything more about it, send me an email or something. I'm going to go and try to find some internet I can steal so that I can read the news.
-Donald

PS I just got an email from Gabe. He managed to survive the first wave in Phuket, even though he was on a boat on the pier. His boat was one of the only ones that made it. He got away from Phuket by bus before the second wave struck, with his baggage and money and passport and everything. Amazing, even more so considering the horrible tragedy that befell so many other people in Asia that day. Extreme luck, for which I thank whatever force responsible. I'm going to go nap now.