21 / 40
2016 Home For the Holidays
LINCOLN DAILY NEWS November 23, 2016 Page 21
The Theme of this Magazine reflects Perry
Como’s nostalgic song from over sixty
years ago. There’s No Place Like Home for
the Holiday was an instant hit because it
captured a dream so many post-war people
celebrated. It persists through the years
because it speaks to a deep inner-longing.
We all need the secure haven of home!
The Christmas season stirs the deepest
yearnings for being with our roots. We want
to be home with family for the holidays.
But, lest we get over-whelmed by nostalgia, we
also understand that holiday family gatherings
sometimes fall far short of expectations. This
shortfall has several causes:
1. Great expectations risk great disappointments.
It possible to dream beyond what can possibly
come to pass. The let-down of unrealized
expectations can push toward depressing depths.
2. Many families are amazingly complex. Your
family may include in-laws, former in-laws,
alienation between certain family members, and
schedule complications that make gatherings
incomplete, tense, or even explosive. Tension
within the family may be fed by unresolved
arguments or feuds that create moderate difficulty
when people don’t see each other, but the same-
room encounter of Christmas gatherings may feed
an eruption of long-smoldering anger.
3. Different generations are likely to have
difference expectations. Small children may have
no interest in anything beyond the opening the
goodies under the tree, then playing with them,
and perhaps destroying them. Pre-teens may
seem pre-occupied by their mobile game devices.
Teen-agers may be burdened by the fact that
the family is not “cool” enough to warrant their
presence. They may be chafing at the family
by Dr. Paul Boatman, Pastoral Consultant
Bringing the family together for the holidays
CONTINUED ►►
Photos from Metro