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Alison Piepmeier

My life is all about bringing down the patriarchy. I write books and articles about feminism, and I also teach and direct the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston....

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Christmas, the aftermath

Alison Piepmeier

My family’s beginning to scatter.  My parents are making a grocery list to replenish the food we’ve all eaten over the last few days.  The dogs seem calmer.  We’re all recovering from Christmas.

It was a good day--lots of coffee and food, and an appropriate number of presents (we scaled back a bit this year, which was a good decision).  The highlight for me was the full family playing the game Apples to Apples around the dining room table, eating pecan pie and chess bars while we lobbied for our cards to be picked.  At one point my brother Aaron did a full-on performance as a magician--the kind of ridiculous, committed comedy that he’s famous for.  Meanwhile, my other brother Trey and Biffle made Wookiee noises to celebrate.

Because we all live in different places, like almost every family in America, the stakes can seem awfully high at the holidays.  I find that I want to make the most of every moment together, an impulse that can get in the way of us actually enjoying each other.  I can end up trying to perform some version of the happy sister and daughter, trying to make sure all the external indicators look the way they’re supposed to rather than tapping into my own feelings.  So I’m glad this wasn’t the overriding dynamic this year.  For the most part, we were able to just be together.