A Christmas Story

Everybody has a different connotation of what they view family as. For some it is a “ blood is thicker than water” approach, others have their own reservations with their biological family and value the care and appreciation of friends and other people in their life, I would think it was because when someone has no obligatory reason to care about you and does, it touches something inside you that is so deep you don’t even know that its there. I don’t just mean immediate family but extended as well grandparents, aunts uncles, I grew around around my friends who would always talk about being at their grandmas house or having their whole family over for the holidays, but I didn’t. I was raised over 800 miles away from my extended family, it never really bothered me because a percentage of those friends that was larger than I would have liked to see didn’t have a two parent house hold or siblings that for better or for worse were on their team. I was thankful for that even if I didn’t realize it at the time, but the end of the year always got to me alittle. I realize now that It shouldn’t have, my family has a tradition, we spend our Christmas Eve with my bestfriends family, I think that friend really doesn’t do it justice. Both of his parents worked during the day and my mom didn’t so they would be us, so much so that I honestly believed that he was related to me, and I hated him to the point of asking my mom if he could just stay home and not come, but I was always happy that he did he’s my brother in every sense of the word, the only person besides my actual brother thats seen my most unfiltered moments in life and took them in stride. I don’t even remember when we started going over there just that we would, and it was the best day of the year honestly, to see my parents interact with people that they loved which is hard enough to do as it is let alone as an adult with a family but they did. To eat family dinners together and play games at the table, it was all so mundane in nature but it meant the world to me because I didn’t have a big family, well not one as easily accessible as most people but I didn’t care. They’re a family almost tailor made for mine. They have 3 children that mirror my siblings and myself my younger brother was the only one who didn’t have a set partner in crime to go through the night with so he would bounce around which was okay too because there’s symmetry in imperfection. The way that he was able to bond with all of us because he didn’t have a set “ playmate for lack of a better word. My little brother brought a lightness to everything being so much younger than everybody else we all felt like we had a stake in how he would turn out. There was an older sister same as mine, but everything that I wouldnt have gotten from my sister I got from her, she is inherently kind and eerily talented, I could never really pinpoint what she loved to do because there was passion and commitment in all of her endeavors, I admired that about her even if I would never say it to her face. I think it was because my sister possessed all of these qualities but she would let her self be all these things when she was with her. Their son was my age and I already talked about how close we are but its hard to put into words our unspoken synchronity, in that we spoke and acted the same way, but we’re different in so many aspects that people we knew didn’t even know we knew each other. He was the first person that taught me about being loyal to someone who wasn’t in your family because he was with me before I could even remember, the best person I know and he doesn’t care if anybody else is aware of how good he is because its not for them he is who he is and is unapologetic about it. They also have a younger daughter I didn’t interact with her very much because she was my sister too but there was something about the way she would command a room she always ended up getting the things she wanted which is a skill that is uncommon to come by, her and my sister are vastly different but I’m glad that they shared a childhood because there is never anybody that you can’t learn something from. The dad is, for lack of a better word interesting, he reminded me of my father in so many ways insanely talented the way his oldest daughter was always a new project or something new to tell me about when I’m in the threshold of his doorway preparing to leave, no matter how he acted he had a way of making you believe he truly had your best interest at heart, lied like a rug but I didn’t see it that way he was entertaining and he made you comfortable around him he opened my father up to have someone so likeminded. The mom is a beautiful soul the nicest person that ive ever met she treated me like I was one of her own, it wasnt how people will tell you to “ make yourself at home” and then you continued to not completely feel like you belonged, she made me feel loved in a different way then my mom did I think they brought out the best in each other because my mom loved her children like they were her own and bonding over loved ones is a bond unbroken. I love the whole family with my entire being becaue they gave me what I didn’t know I needed not just me though my whole family as well, they were an extended-nuclear family for us. I almost forgot actually, there was a new addition to our tradition and I wasn’t sure how I felt about her honestly because when you love someone you are suspicious of anybody who has the capacity to hurt them but my bestfriend, his girlfriend is more like me than she is him and I realized how she love him rivals how I do and how my extended nuclear family has taken to her like she was their own only reinforces the fact that she belongs and It was a pleasant surprise, because I love her too. Partly because of how my friend does but I think it’s mostly because of how she loves him she brings out all the things that he would shield from the world if it was anybody but her, I’m glad that she’s my family too. I have been away for two Christmas eves now and the tradition still stands because the bond a family has is stronger than any one person but I hope that this is a piece of me that they can have there. I will never be able to thank the six of them enough for giving myself and my family the kind of love that only family can. From Okinawa Japan, I wish Merry Christmas to my entire family.