This week of winter break we’ve watched a cartoon version of A Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. All three movies explore themes of family, separation, conflict, togetherness, poverty and wealth. It makes sense that after seeing all those shows together I would get a haunted fever dream of my own.

In my dream, Tim and I were looking at a house for sale, but once inside it was the 1980s and it was my parents looking at a house with me and my brothers in tow. Was that a book on the shelf by Donald Trump? But, then it was back to Tim and our kids. In the end of the dream, the price was too high and we had to leave.

Some background information: My older half-brothers lived with their Dad in California for most of my childhood. Our part of the family never owned a house growing up as we always rented. I had always hoped that our family would someday all live together, but after my brothers and I went off to college, we never got back together on a regular basis. When my Dad died during my twenties, it sealed the deal. Add that to Tim’s and my failed attempts to sell our house this year to move closer family, it’s not surprising it’s all coming out at Christmas.

The holidays are a time when we try to spend time with friends and family, but maybe also spend too much money, carry too many expectations and recall too many memories. On top of that, the ice storm has thrown a wrench into our carefully laid plans. We’re again forced into having to figure it out as we go, make the best of what we have available to us and appreciate the people and experiences we have now, in real life. A wonderful life.