As the mind shifts from the fall to the winter holiday season, family drama comes back to life.

the holidays and family

Every holiday season, both sides of our families descend to Southern California and my wife and I host a number of events. There’s Christmas, New Year’s and, in between, my daughter’s birthday party.

Without fail, every single year, someone finds a way to feel slighted, mistreated, overlooked and, sometimes, directly offended.

In the aftermath, my wife spends her time pondering what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. This state lasts several weeks and is one the most irritating things in our relationship. She wants me to sit down and listen to all the pondering she’s doing, and to all the possible scenarios that we could encounter in future interactions with family.

No one has told her that not everything needs to be “improved”. Many times, accepting a small degree of disruption is healthy for the long term. (Of course, I’ve told her, but who am I to have a valid opinion!)

So here we go again. The next two months will be fun.

surfing

One place where troubles and troublemakers cannot follow me is the ocean. I was happy to join James for a dawn patrol session at 6:00am on Thursday. First light was just before 6:00am and sunrise at around 6:20am .

We chose Malibu 2nd Point. There weren’t many waves and the water is getting a little colder this time of the year. In the course of one hour, James’s fingers lost all blood circulation and looked pale dead, so we had to cut our session short.

Nonetheless, it was a great way to catch up with a friend.

weekend expedition

On Sunday, we had a birthday party at 10:30am . This kept our usual morning expedition quite local. We went to Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks and hiked the Paradise Falls Trail.

There was a scene that has stuck with me. My two kids running full speed down the hill. Full of joy, full of adventure and discovery. The image of happiness. Their happiness is my happiness.