‘Tis the Season to be Brawly by Louis Schwartz

Whether you celebrate, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving, or none of the above, I think that we can all agree that the holidays are a time for food and celebration. But one of the worst parts of the holiday season is FAMILY.

My family comes in from California and New York every year for Thanksgiving. My 3 cousins arrive (20, 18, and 14) and all the 14 year old wants to do is hang out with me for hours on hours at a time. I want to talk to my 18 year old cousin because she is my age, in high school, and we’re both going through the college application process right now (this could be another blog in itself). My 20-year old cousin, eh…he does his own thing with my grandparents and his friends who live in Cleveland.

Alright the California side of things; rich, snobby cousins who brag about everything that they’re doing and where they live every single time they come in. What I hear every single time the California side of the family comes in is, “We live in the same complex as Justin Bieber’s parents, but they’re higher up and there’s an extra gate up there.” Seriously all I think during this rant is 1) “Why do I even care about Justin Bieber’s parents” and 2) You’ve told me this every single time you come in.” I love my cousins because they’re my family but if I didn’t have to see them at all during a year I would choose not to.

New York side; My cousin who’s a junior in college, my uncle who just sits on the couch, and my Aunt who loves to rant about how good her cooking is to everyone. This year they came in and I wanted to spend time with my older cousin, but there’s one thing that stood in my way…MY JEWISH GRANDMOTHER. She wants to keep him cooped up in the house all day with him, cook for him, and keep him to herself with no outside contact with the outside world (ok maybe that’s a little bit exaggerated). Oh and my grandmother gets crazy too when we have family in town.

My grandmother; she’s been through a lot; losing her mother (my great-grandmother), selling her condo in Florida (one of the hardest decisions she’s had to make), moving out of the house she raised her kids in, and into an apartment, and two knee surgeries. The knee surgeries are the main things that drive me to write about her. When just me and my family are in town (which we are the whole year), she tells us that she is having a bad day and is in a lot of pain. But when the family comes in from out of town she puts on act and a smile and goes through here day in pain but not telling anyone. I know the reason she does it is because she doesn’t want them to worry but, sometimes they see past that and look deeper into what she’s doing. But there’s one thing good about my family during the holiday times this year…Politics are definitely not off the table.

The good thing about my family is that we all have the same political viewpoint. We are all very left wing liberals. So we all have the same views on the politics right now. Politics were a main topic at the Thanksgiving table and there were no arguments but there were agreeing opinions on certain topics (but I won’t go preaching my political viewpoint here).

All in all, I do love my family very much but spending time with them during the holidays is not my favorite past time. So as the holidays come and go this year just remember…”They’re only here for a week.”

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