Holiday Hangover

Hello, my name is Heidi. It has been 8 days since my last confession...

And so it goes after a solid week of family togetherness, not-so-togetherness, and everything in between. Now I realize that blended families are de rigueur these days, but I have to say that mine takes the cake, or pumpkin pie should I say.

There was no - "stop, pause and listen" going on for me in the past 8 days. In fact, it was more of a "panic (or manic), control and seethe" experience. Clearly my old self bared its dusty soul. We ran the gamut of managing my father's near volcanic temper due to a sibling's extremely late arrival to the Thanksgiving feast, to his near tectonic explosion (and frankly bewildered disbelief) at the gross display of disrespect by one of his grandchildren.

So now that a few days have passed since my dueling Thanksgiving feasts, I ask myself - how do other family's deal with this annually-inflicted level of expected, and real, love and affection complicit with toxic levels of angst, displaced expectations and unrepressed anger?  Is it just me?

So how do family's deal with these kinds of drama? Does one adhere to the laconic - "don't discuss, don't respond" dynamic? Or the more loquacious - "so who's in the dog house now?" approach. Or, in fact, are there such deified familial states that one does not need to take to one's bed at the thought of over-saturating the stuffing? Inquiring minds want to know...

So after all of the typical Hutchison post-mortem hubaloo of which I was prime participant, I learned something this holiday. It may sound trite, hackneyed, whatever phrase you want to use but here goes: I love my family unconditionally, I love being part of my family, I embrace them warts, wine and all, and as my sister and I swore over blood oaths, we would take down anyone who disrespected our family.

Tall words for two chicks hitting their mid-40s. Did I mention we were buff?

So there goes the words of the Thanksgiving prophet - love thyself as much as you love your family, and you will go far.

Cheers!