“At Christmas,
all roads lead home.” 
Marjorie Holmes

The leftovers from Christmas dinner have all been put away. The crumpled wrapping paper from the many gifts that were under the tree has been disposed of appropriately. The grandkids are back home and asleep in their own beds. Kathy is, understandably, sound asleep on the couch in the living room after a day of preparing and serving an amazing Christmas dinner. (I’ll wake her up to go to bed in a few minutes.) And me? I’m sitting here at my desk savoring the last few minutes of what has been a truly wonderful family celebration of Christmas.

Until this year, I continued to think of our home on 38th Avenue in San Francisco as the place where our family holiday celebration should take place. For so many years, that was home. Even after Mom sold the house in 2014, I still had a feeling that that’s where Christmas dinner should be enjoyed. Strange as it may seem, this year is the first year I’ve acknowledged, accepted, and embraced the reality that our home here in San José is truly home, and that this is where our Christmas dinner needs to be celebrated.

What a gift for Kathy and me to have everyone home for dinner this year — Tom and Hillaray, Steve & Morgan, Brendan, and our four (soon to be five) grandkids were all with us to enjoy the feast prepared by Kathy. Watching the grandkids playing together and interacting so lovingly with the adults warmed my heart. The evening was filled with good conversation, amazing food, lots of laughter, and even a friendly after-dinner game of Family Feud – Christmas Edition. Gifts were opened, gratitude was expressed, and a tangible sense of love permeated the room. I could not have asked for a better experience of Christmas.

As Marjorie Holmes mentions in the quote above, “At Christmas, all roads lead home.” For now, this is home. This is where Kathy and I raised our three sons. This is where our grandkids gather to get to know and appreciate their cousins. This is where our family Christmas dinner should be and will be… until such time as “home” is someplace else. I’m grateful that this year, all roads led here.