I feel like I have to write something positive after that rant about my aunt. To be honest, my family is really supportive of my being vegan, despite not “getting it”. One of my goals is to get my brother to go vegan (he’s vegetarian), he’s extremely resistant to it but I was at that age too. I’d love for my mom to at least become vegetarian, she doesn’t eat a lot of meat (having had two vegetarian children in the house) but chicken, ham and turkey sometimes end up on her plate.

But they’re supportive of me. My mom, who is a librarian, started reading books about veganism at work a few weeks ago (she emailed me to ask why honey wasn’t vegan, and apparently that started a whole research project). When I came home, I saw that she had a copy of The Vegan Sourcebook on her bookcase. That’s the book that opened my eyes to going vegan, so I’m pretty excited that she has a copy.

Yesterday, she made me an apple pie using margarine instead of butter specially for me. I used to make the apple pie every year, and then last year I was vegan and didn’t make one, nor did I eat any. This year, she thought about what she would need to change it to be vegan (and I thought she picked up non-vegan margarine at first… but no, it’s vegan) and she did it.

And my sister’s making cookies for me! She wanted to bring something anyway, so she called and asked if I wanted her to make anything vegan. I originally said no, because most recipes involve buying a lot of stuff (or at least for me, who doesn’t keep her kitchen well-stocked at all), and all my cookbooks are in Chicago (minus Please Don’t Feed the Bears, which I got as a Solstice gift from my Secret Soybean). But then I realized that I had the cookie recipe on my webpage, so I sent it to her and walked her through which items to get at the grocery store (she just needed margarine, vegan chocolate chips, and molasses. She obviously keeps her kitchen better stocked than I do!). So we’ll see if her cookies come out looking/tasting normal, unlike mine (it’s still a mystery. They’re good, but just different. I don’t know why) .

Anyway, despite my occasional griping, my family does rock. And Christmas isn’t all about the food (I would’ve been fine with no dessert, really… probably even better off). I love Christmas because it is, absolutely first and foremost, about my family. For those of you who haven’t known me that long, Christmas is extremely special to us because, nine years ago, my father was allowed home from the hospital for one day: Christmas. It was the most bittersweet Christmas I’ll probably ever experience. It was so great to have him home, smiling and even petting Jewel (he didn’t like cats) and just being happy. But two months and a day later, he was dead. So we always think back on that Christmas, every year. And give thanks that everyone else is still here (especially considering my sister’s horribly accident a couple years ago).

And that’s why my sister bought me a flight home. Not so I can eat vegan baked goods, but so I can be with my family. Of course, Avocado and Ginny are my family as well and they didn’t come with me, but I’ll see them on Christmas night.

So tell your family, especially the non-human family members, how much you love them. Not the (admittedly yummy) vegan food they’ve prepared for you. And remember, Christmas is about compassion for all creatures.

In other news, I can’t wait until we start having Christmas dinners at everyone else’s homes so when it’s my turn, I can have a delicious dinner with no meat on the table.