I can't even remember the first time I heard the phrase, but I think it was related to one of Olivia's school meetings, and we were being referred to as a 'non-traditional' family. There is perhaps no other time of year more wrapped up in traditions, as well as bows, than the holiday season, from Chanukkah through Christmas and Kwanza, as well as Mawlid al-Nabi (the Muslim celebration of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday during December) and various other non-denominational celebrations squeezed in between. Though my parents were together for 62 years before Mom transitioned nearly 18 months ago, my own marriage ended in divorce, as do more than half of all marriages today.
I am blessed with two daughters, born of two loving and different mothers, as well as two grandsons and a son-in-law. My own two girls have between them six sets of grandparents, and it requires geometry to tabulate all the cousins and second cousins. The logistics and planning of traditional holiday events thus became harder, as everyone wants their children and family nearby, but short of cloning (still working on that), being in multiple places all at once remains the greatest demand of the holiday season.
Being the classic divorced Disney Dad, I have tried to appreciate as well as celebrate those special days, like birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve and Day, etc...whenever we can gather, versus on the actual day. The time spent together is the magic and the family glue, even if a few days early or late.
It's that attitude that shapes the gratitude. Olivia's mother and I alternate holidays, so she was in Alabama this Christmas Eve and day but will return on 12/26 for a Crane family trek to Orlando, the House of Mouse, and Universal Studios. Memories of a prior trip with this crew, pre-arrival of our twin Mighty Mites to the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, fill my mind and heart with memories, stories, and smiles. And this trip should fill a whole other life chapter.
We will land in the Disney Parks first, staying nearby in Disney Springs. The trip will be a splurge, as was the Greenbrier, but the photos alone will be worth this investment. Trips to Orlando became a summer and holiday staple with both of my girls, Barclay from grade school into her late teens and Olivia since kindergarten. Typically traveling as a party of two, this will be my first time traveling to the Orlando parks with a party of six. Though both my banker and broker warned me, the interest rates on home equity lines and second mortgages are coming down again. Surprisingly affordable thanks to Bidenomics... Ho, Ho Ho...
I used to move through this time of year in a non-traditional fashion, tacking a snow/sin/sun week or weekend on the slopes in Colorado, followed or preceded by a swing through Lost Wages. Spent many a Christmas through the New Year this way, and I was on the Vegas Strip early Christmas morning in 1995 when Dean Martin passed through the pearly gates into that high roller suite in the sky. That flight back was a little melancholy, the in-flight movie was the original, "Santa Clause," a Disney flick adding nicely to the staples of the Christmas season. Several tearful moments were spent during that movie, with my divorce still fresh in the rear-view. I would not have the opportunity to again spend Christmas Eve, day, or morning with my firstborn until almost the recent day.
And yet for all the challenges facing our nation, I for one, and I think there are several million more of me, am glad to see we have reached a time and place of acceptance and celebration of families of all stripes, all genders, all races, all cultures/faiths, and all ages. Family and blood relations still certainly matter, but so do families of friendship, choice, and increasingly second choice. My namesake and grandfather, William C. "Bud" Crane, had five wives. He was just a bit ahead of his time...
And so as we head south, in hopes of a bit drier and warmer weather, with Santa having just paid us all a visit and those bills not due until at least mid-January, please join me in wishing a blessed holiday season and New Year to all. From our non-traditional and on occasion dysfunctional family (you cannot spell dysf- without the fun), may all your days, holidays, and New Year be bright! God bless us, everyone.
