Family and food,
laughter, reflection, football.
What are we buying?

I love my family and I love being at home more than normal with them during the holidays. We’ve created our own traditions and holidays and have an entire family history of inside jokes. We eat and be merry and watch football and make fun of everyone else and write long, unnecessary emails for our own entertainment. We play games and laugh at eachother’s jokes and do things for and with and against eachother. Its my favorite time of year because I get to be with my family all together which doesn’t happen as often because my brothers are married and there are nieces and nephews now and I’m away and everybody has multiple lives to lead. So Christmas is this excuse that we need to obligate ourselves into getting together more often and enjoying eachother’s compnay.

I guess what I’m wondering is, what are all the presents for? I could do without them really. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting them and I like giving them and I think that it probably wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t exchange. You know, I even like the WAY we exchange gifts. We watch and experience each person’s gift as a family in a circle (sort of) and its slow and arduous and sometimes annoying. But what’s the real reason that I enjoy it? I think its more to do with my family and less to do with the gifts.

I’m absolutely not trying to relay some seeded message about wastefulness or anything like that. I think I just discover things about myself THROUGH writing haiku, that I didn’t even know and I feel like I’d like to share it. Its pretty neat how expression can be multi-layered without intention.

Happy days with your fams and your friends and football and sunlight and bare trees and TV.