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Tag: Family

Family

Truth

Each December a series of tiny treasures arrive in my mailbox. A Cat Lovers Against the Bomb calendar. A refrigerator magnet from my favorite cinema. Return address labels with snowflakes. Gifts from good causes all hoping to receive a return gift from me. I love making lists, so the penguin and reindeer notepad was about to be saved from the recycle bin when I noticed the personalization, “The Koenig Family, 1266 South 13th Street.” A subtle sadness washed over me as I thought, “No family lives at this address.” “Family” for me has long equaled a husband and children living
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Merry Memories

My father died on Christmas day. This Christmas, like the one thirty years ago, I will host my family in my cozy home with candles burning and my tree gloriously trimmed. Unlike that year, my nursing newborn is now the 30 year old flying home from New York before he heads off to India. My home is now an apartment instead of a house. There will be no husband to cohost the holiday party, and the widow in the house will not be my mother but will be me. It’s impossible for me to not connect holidays with losses, even
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Family of Choice

Growing up the fifth of eight children, I never fully appreciated the notion of wanting to add extra people to your family.  Why would you want another brother if you already had five? After law school, I returned from Boston to Omaha where all of my family, save one brother, still lived. I never lacked for the opportunity to be with family on any Christmas, birthday, or Fourth of July. My husband’s family lived here, too, and our children grew up on my mother-in-law’s famous sit down holiday dinners for 20. Family changes when you divorce. You lose more family
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