Christmas Letter

“Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays,” is how a seasonal classic song begins. The last several years I’ve been wondering what that word “home” means—or more to the point, where should I be to find Christmas? Home invokes thoughts of family, but Christmas speaks to larger themes—the birth of the Christ child and his gifts of hope, justice, and love. Do we celebrate more completely or more fully with our family? Then, who is our family? When I was a girl, we gathered in large groups of people who shared the same parents/grandparents. Christmas meant parties with these beloved ones, sharing food and conversation in those magic moments before Santa came—or relishing a turkey dinner after the excitement of opening gifts on Christmas morning. The years passed and the families expanded, moved to different towns, and they no longer gathered at this time of year. The nucleus of Scott, Charmi, Shreve and me joined Grandma, Gramps, and Glenn, attaching to our Christmas celebrations good friends who became honorary aunts and uncles to replace those living in other states. Even when Gramps died, we maintained this family circle as Charmi and Shreve went to college and on to adult lives in other cities. Christmas meant parties in Sonoma, California. In 2004 Charmi and JJ married, Shreve joined Candice in Canada, and Grandma and Glenn moved to Texas to share Jensen Christmases there. This year, seven of us will again gather in Sonoma—from Hollywood and Toronto—to share Christmas. We come with our anticipations based on our happy memories of the past, tempered with the problems of cross-continental travel, wondering what effect jet lag will have on little River, worrying that too much rain will adversely affect our reunion.
So I ask my questions again: Where do I find Christmas? Where is my home? Who is my family? In the Bible I read, “God’s will is that we cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1: 16-17). Jesus says, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister, and mother” (Mark 3:35). “People will come from east and west and from north and south to sit at God’s table” (Luke 13: 29).
This year, then, as I collect my thoughts to share as I wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I apologize for rambling (do all teachers talk too much?), but I want to tell you about my world-wide family. Not only do they come from north and south, east and west, but also they practice God’s will. There’s Bill who takes care of Calle del Arroyo so we can spend so much time in Gainesville. There’s Shihfen who is taking care of our cat Smokey just now so we can be calm while we are here in Sonoma. There’s Thomasenia who supports me as I struggle with seemingly impossible tasks on my way to the doctorate. There’s Fatma, Emily, and Kristin who let me mother them a little. We have new friends who have lived in countries all over the world, some who have taught in universities and who teach us yet. We are blessed with friends at the University of Florida and United Church of Gainesville who supported our choice of President Obama in our search for justice and good. Because we have lived in Gainesville, we have connected with Americans of many backgrounds and from many states. We have friends from Turkey, Taiwan, China, and Nigeria. We have friends who speak different languages, whose skin is a different color, who worship God differently, and who have made a home with a member of the same sex. We are all one family, one people under God. This Christmas season I celebrate that reality and pray that the coming New Year will make love and peace a reality for the entire world, and not simply my small community.
Love, Joanne