The One Where They Had to Pivot: Holiday Edition

I’ve been reflecting on the upcoming holidays and how this year might look different than those in the past. One of my favorite family traditions is what we do every Christmas Eve with my family. To truly understand it, you must know that this is held at my father’s house and while it’s big, it’s not really built to handle a family of our size when there is a pandemic. 

Most years, there are at least the following people at this annual event: 

• At least 5 various parents (our parents, step-parents, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law’s parents, and various other adults looking for a place to spend the evening)

• 7 siblings

• 7 significant others

• My husband’s brother and sister-in-law

• 15 nieces and nephews 

All of that equals at least 34 bodies who really all want to be in the same room. It’s loud, it’s crazy, you are always stepping around or over someone and once you find a spot, you try to stay there. I absolutely love every minute of it. 

As we get closer to that date, I’ve started to reimagine what the holidays could look like for our family. How do I take this possibly HUGE disappointment of not being able to come together as normal and turn it into a memory that the family can look back on fondly? While we’ve become really good at pivoting this year, I know that this is a tall order for myself and my family. 

But then I stop and remember the holidays where things didn’t work out as planned. How our plans were ruined last second and we still somehow made memories that have lasted a lifetime.  There was that one Halloween in Wichita where it snowed so much that trick-or-treating wasn’t even possible. That Thanksgiving where we were supposed to go to Dallas and ended up having to throw together a meal on Wednesday because Ryleigh had a fever. And finally, that one Christmas when I was 12 when I had strep throat and we had pasta for dinner and enjoyed a quiet day with just our family instead of being with our huge Begley family. 

Looking back, I couldn’t have imagined those days any differently. They seemed to have turned out exactly how they were supposed to. And I know this year will be no different.

PS: To give you a visual, this picture is just a few years old and we've added 5 grandbabies and two significant others to this picture. And this is just my siblings, my dad, and my stepmom.