Just Say Christmas

There are all kinds of Christmases, and all kinds of families. The family you’re born into. The family you make. And the family you choose. Christmas means summer in New Zealand, and All Blacks wedding season, too. Plans made and plans changed, because no matter how well you plan, life happens. Especially if, say, you’re marrying your late husband’s brother, you’ve got a couple of kids in the mix, and everybody’s talked too much about all that already. And then there’s the rest of the family. A stepbrother who’s carried too big a secret for thirty years and needs to...

There are all kinds of Christmases, and all kinds of families. The family you’re born into. The family you make. And the family you choose. Christmas means summer in New Zealand, and All Blacks wedding season, too. Plans made and plans changed, because no matter how well you plan, life happens. Especially if, say, you’re marrying your late husband’s brother, you’ve got a couple of kids in the mix, and everybody’s talked too much about all that already. And then there’s the rest of the family. A stepbrother who’s carried too big a secret for thirty years and needs to lay that burden down. Another whose romance with the maid of honor went south, for reasons neither of them quite understand. A sister who wants her teenage romance to stick, and the man who wants to make that happen. From the beaches of New Zealand’s Far North to the shadow of the Southern Alps, Christmas brings family tensions and family bonds, secrets revealed, and promises kept, including the most important promise a person can make: to be there.