The holiday season is indeed a time for family. Of course, “family” doesn’t always mean those whom you are related to. Times can be just as fun with the people that you love regardless of who shares the same grandparents.
I realized just how much we take our friends for granted a couple mornings ago when somebody mentioned to me the idea for this post. I had spent last weekend with people who are as much a part of my family as my own brother and had never even given the connection a thought.

It is a special thing when 70 cross country runners are mashed into one coach’s living room for the annual Blackburn Christmas Party.

I never really thought about how much I look forward to this every year, but the cross country team is really one of my families.

I mean, at how many Christmas parties can someone unwrap a giant light switch, and that just be another normal gift?

These guys are amazing! I’m happy and proud to be one of them.

I had also spent time caroling  with some of my show choir friends, and I realized how much they are a family to me as well.

Wandering around with these guys, joking about how just one time we’d like to bust out into Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” instead of “Silent Night.”

Even though it’s only my first year with show choir, they’ve taken me wholeheartedly into their family, and for that I am grateful.

I also had the honor of visiting someone else’s family of friends that weekend.

Two of my friends spend the occasional day at an assisted living home, having fun with the residents there. Saturday’s time was for baking and decorating cookies and sharing stories of the holidays.

Even as an outsider to this group, I could feel the comfort and happiness they had together, sharing tales and telling jokes.

And it wasn’t only the anecdotes that were delightful. The cookies were delicious, too.  These morsels were only a small part of the afternoon, tangible pieces of a much bigger picture, one of friendships that would last for years.

Do you have any wintertime stories about you and your friends? Drop them in the comments or find me in these halls. I’d love to hear them!

-Asa