We didn’t have the boys that particular Christmas, meaning my stepbrothers were spending actual Christmas Day with their mom and half brothers. Their other family. So we celebrated a few days early, our blended family of seven (1 boy and a housekeeper short of the Brady Bunch) gathered to exchange gifts and carry out a couple of our annual traditions, like bickering about lyrics to Carpenters’ Christmas songs. (“Gee, the traffic is terrific” – um, isn’t the sarcasm OBVIOUS in this lyric? Apparently not to everyone). So of course, after less than an hour, there’s a squabble. Everyone is throwing in their opinion as loudly as possible, and then my stepbrother Tim says above the noise, in an exasperated tone, “Can everybody stop fighting? It’s our fake Christmas, for God’s sake!”
Classic.
Oh, thank you Lord for the blessing of a blended, dysfunctional family. And there is not a trace of sarcasm in that statement.
