Somehow, as I struggle…

Somehow, as I struggle to keep the kids happy and entertained, as we try to get the house in order so that we can leave for a week in California with Kevin's family (all of whom I like very much), as I write holiday cards to relatives, as Christmas approaches, this quote seems apropos:

"Landsman gives Berko a look that is meant to remind him not of his age and station in life but of the manifest uncoolness of bickering with one's relatives.... It never takes longer than a few minutes, whenever they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That's what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts."

- Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union