My Family Christmas 2026

It’s always Joyful and, at times, Chaotic during the holidays for my family during the Christmas celebrations, but my wish to all of you is that you can find a petal of happiness within the gardens of gravity we till through this season and beyond. Merry Christmas from Yvonna and me!

We usually spend Christmas Eve at my Mom’s house, where she works tirelessly to provide a meal and a gift to everyone who walks through the door. Over the years, she has made so many feel loved with her abrazos and hospitality.

Clip of Joy & Commotion at Mom's in Marble Falls, Texas.

She always asks me to say grace before the meal, even though at times my Faith in what I profess is no greater than a grain of sand. There are often two variations of each dish served to accommodate my gluten-free diet and the vegans in our family. This year, my sister Terry and brother-in-law Davide cooked up a batch of the best gluten-free fried chicken I’ve ever tasted!

After dinner, my nieces served as Santa’s helpers (and my mom’s) and distributed the gifts under the artificial, but well-decorated Christmas tree. In the old days in Cedar Creek, where my Mom’s family was raised, we would decorate a cedar or juniper tree, but our allergies put a stop to that years ago. This time of giving is really about the kids now. My mom, my wife, and my sisters are always careful to have several things for them to open.

Rhett, with his PapaJAM and Uncle Ryan.

After the commotion subsides, I break out my guitar and sing a few Christmas songs before we do our white elephant gift lottery. This year, I sang “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” “Feliz Navidad,” and “Angels We Have Heard On High,” with almost everyone singing along. I soon learned that the two youngest members of our family were obsessed with my guitar, especially the one-year-old, Rhett.

I’m pretty sure my sister Ginny’s family got the best of the white elephant exchange, the pink-gripped, portable tool-kit, from our local mom-and-pop hardware store, Ford & Crew. Of course, I may be biased because that’s what I brought to exchange.

We’re spending Christmas Day with our immediate family: Ryan and his daughter, Remi; Free, her husband Gregg, and daughter, Vae; Falon, and her husband, Kyle; plus Mariah, her husband Micah, and the two boys, Preston, age 2, and Rhett, age one! When our daughters were young, we would all wake up and look inside the stockings hung over the mantle of the chimney, but today we’ll enjoy a Christmas dinner, prepared by my wife, and then we’ll open the gifts under the tree after we’ve had our fill. Yes, we know we are blessed!