CIRCUIT BREAKER CHRISTMAS

or How To Maximize Your Holly and Jolly

Tradition is dead.

Long live Tradition.

As many of you know, my Dad died in January this year. He had been suffering for years with Parkinson’s related dementia, so even though it was terrifically sad when he died, it also felt like a long time coming.

This year has been a weird one.

Dad died. Mom was on The Voice UK a month later. My Uncle Gordon died in spring. I travelled across Canada filming TV spots in the summer. My Uncle Thurman died this month.

The spectre of a very sad Christmas soaked in too much emotion quickly approached on the horizon.
Steps needed to be taken.
Traditions needed to change, or at least pause, lest us on the not-dead side of the family slip into a holly jolly pit of despair.

We needed a circuit breaker.

So, we gathered the family and planned a ridiculous, once in a lifetime Christmas vacation to… Florida.

It’s been wonderful.

On this trip we’ve spent more time laughing together as a family than we have in ages.
We’ve spent a little bit of time with a tear in our eyes too.

Bittersweet.
Deliciously bittersweet.

It has also required an exceptional amount of planning and scheduling.
Getting eight people to exist en masse is no easy feat.

Make no mistake, it has not been cheap and we’ll be paying for it for awhile.
However, we are more than aware of how fortunate we are currently.

Though as always, I am very aware that good fortune, like bad luck, is usually temporary.

Good times, and bad times, both come and go.

You wait out the bad times.
You wring out every last drop of the good times.

This year, we’ll raise a glass to the memory of my Dad, my Uncle Gordon, and my Uncle Thurry.
We’ll also raise a glass to all of the happy memories we’ve created and are creating right now.

Traditions change.
They must.
Anything done in repetition for too long becomes a burden.

Core elements can remain but the face of tradition can change.
Tradition can get even better.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you.
Your support here has been amazing. I’ll be raising a thankful glass for that as well.

(Pictured: Author wears jazzy red jacket on Main Street at Disney World while actual families wait for the megalomanic grown man to get out of way so they can take a picture in front of the castle)