Key points

Adult sibling relationships do not have to be perfect to be functional. Get past old stuff.

In-laws can be a minefield as new people in the family bring new ways to celebrate. Embrace the change.

Friends are important to young people. Try to find a balance between the need for peers and time with family.

Thomas Wolfe coined the phrase, You can’t go home again, for his 1940 book of that title, but you can certainly get back in the neighborhood. Families can be like trees—shivering in the metaphorical winter winds and standing tall and strong in other storms. Sometimes boughs bend and sometimes they break. The December holidays may shake a family tree until its weaker limbs drop off and get discarded, or they may further strengthen an already stable sequoia. Families, like p

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