Family...

The inevitable family snowball fight is not just a humiliating sad reminder that I, as the middle child, should have paid more attention in little league and gym class, but it is a firm family tradition that is as old as dirt.

I take comfort in coming home to realize that some things have stayed exactly the same throughout the years. My mother's baking, my brother's sense of humor...how I'm still trying to teach my sister how to curse and my father is still practicing. You may have to wait through a few November days at 70 degrees, but eventually the snow still seems to fall and make the streets in my New England town look like a Norman Rockwell painting. Dad still picks out the most grotesquely oversized dilapidated tree he can find at the farm to simply come to the conclusion that there is "not enough room in the living room for the sofa this year." Oh the merriment! 

Over time, I guess some things have changed. The coffee shop by my home is putting on a new roof and I've been watching my sister grow up into a young woman (we had "The Sex Talk" this week). Romana, our brand new puppy, is quietly snatching Christmas ornaments off the low branches of our grotesquely oversized dilapidated Christmas tree (G-O-D as I like to call the it), and I continue to be changed and humbled by the magic that is music and you, the community of "family" who support me.

For me, family has been the sail that helps me steer and the anchor that helps me stop, and find perspective. We may be crazy and dysfunctional but we are sure as hell going to be crazy and dysfunctional together. The beautiful thing is that it's the chaos that claims us, shames us, and names us all.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, Love Seth!