One of my favorite Christmases ever.
It’s kind of crazy, because I was dating a Terrible Someone who actually resented that I was able to spend that Christmas with my family (our relationship ended not long after that). The Famous Musician who had been my crush since I was a wee teen died while I was at my parents’ house that December. And I’d just been…”released” from my job and wasn’t sure how I’d pay rent or tuition.
BUT…when you are with people who know and love you unconditionally, who always give you safe harbor, and who make you tear your tonsils out laughing, who gives a crap about all that other stuff? You set the timer on your camera, run to join your family, know that nothing that can be bought, nothing that can be under the tree on December 25, can ever measure up to the magic of this moment captured. Even if you do wonder when you get your pictures developed how that big gold bow ended up on your brother’s head.
I’ve experienced the amazing laughter your family is capable of, but you are really, really losing it here.
I don’t know what we’re cracking up about, but my father has an “I’m related to these people? I WILL maintain my dignity for this photo” look on his face.
This is one of my favorite pictures of us all. I have it in a little frame in my reading room. It always makes me smile and then I get a little sad because that was the beginning of the end. Daddy got sick that Feb. Life for us was never the same.
All those photos from that Thanksgiving and Christmas seem a little magical to me. It was so unusual for it to be all five of us in photos–and only the five of us. I guess from any year, “the five” are my favorites (not that I don’t love the ones with everyone else, too!).
I have a couple of photos of Mother that affect me that way–they are so good, but when I look at them, I think of how quickly everything changed, and it makes me sad.