This time of year can be challenging for those with faraway or not-awesome biological families. It’s easy to believe that everyone else is happily draping tinsel and sipping hot chocolate while reflecting on magical traditions and creating new ones.

When I was young, we lived a few hours from the rest of our family. My parents always wanted to be at home for Christmas - which I liked as a kid and appreciate even more now. To add some festivity to the day, they hosted a brunch for others who didn’t have big family holiday celebrations to attend. It added good energy and cheer to our quiet household of three.

This year, we’re breaking tradition and actually getting on a plane at Christmas (I am not excited about that part) to spend a week with some of my favorite family-of-choice members. Our story began when two guys were stationed together in Korea. Those guys went back home, got married, had kids, and orchestrated an impressive amount of visits over the next few decades, considering that one set was in Nevada and the other in North Carolina.

Now (most of) those kids have kids, and I get to smooch all of them in five days. I can’t wait.

If you don’t get to smooch your favorite family-of-choice members this holiday season, you could write to them instead.

Good tidings to you and yours. (And remember to define “yours” however the heck you want.) Hope it’s magical!

If you need a great gift for them, might we suggest a postcard subscription?