Merry and Bright

For three days we were together
All twenty-two of us
In my parents' little ranch house
With the walk-out basement
Where my 96-year-old grandmother lives
My seven
My brother's four
My other brother's four
My sister's four
My parents
And my grandma
All on top of each other
Stuffed onto every couch and chair
Jumping over legs
Squeezing past each other
Dodging foam swords and balloon rockets
But everyone merry and bright

While I sat one night playing cards
With my sister and sisters-in-law
My father sat locked in animated conversation
With one of my nephews about a chemistry project
Discussing the possibility of burning excess methane gas
And using the carbon dioxide produced to make limestone
While my husband and my oldest brother
Exchanged perspectives on the interpretation
Of the book of Revelation
From the front room drifted the familiar sounds
Of the same movies my kids have watched
Every Christmas they've ever been at Grandma's
Because Grandma rarely buys a new movie
And I thought that that moment
Could never be more merry or bright

It was colder than Antarctica outside
Opening gifts was a bit chaotic
The top dishwasher rack fell apart more than once
The air mattress I slept on gave out in the middle of one night
And left me mostly on the floor
There was the same microwave that has run like a diesel engine
Since the day they bought it ten years ago
Shaking people from their beds each morning
With every bowl of oatmeal warmed
When my aunt and uncle dropped by with my cousin and her family of five
We had to send a team in a minivan to haul home enough Casey's pizza
Just to feed everyone once
My mom had to teach me how to count the beeps
To set the correct temperature on her oven
So I could heat my family's gluten-free pizza
Since the display is a bit garbled these days
(That's five beeps up for pizza, by the way
And you have to keep it in the front right corner
Because the back left tends to burn things)
But there was not a house in Iowa that night
More warm or merry or bright

So many stories
So many hugs
Really listening
Truly caring
Some patience and lip biting
Right when they were needed
So many laughs
When we presented my parents with a new (quiet) microwave
My dad said he didn't know what that was for
Since their old one worked perfectly fine
And my mom wondered how she would know now
When my dad was using the microwave
While she was outside gardening
So much warm and bright

My dad sat one night in the office
Where my boys were bedded down
In sleeping bags and blankets on the floor
And sang his favorite repertoire of bedtime songs
In his deep and gentle tones
That woke up memories from bedtimes
When I was my boys' age
And for awhile in the bursting house
All was very calm
And dim
And melancholy
And bright

Everyone was ready to leave and sad to go
With rounds and rounds of hugs and good-byes
While the kids scrambled to find their shoes
And the parents scrambled to find their kids
And when we were finally home
Elijah said he would sleep better
If he were still at Grandma's and Grandpa's
Our house was a little too empty, I think
So I sat by my boys' bed a little longer
And sang every song I could remember my dad singing
I sang them in my deepest, gentlest voice
And for a moment that room
Was calm
And dim
And merry
And bright