Hapa Holidays – Roadtrip for a Mixed Marriage

Wishing a Merry Christmas and all the joy of the season to you and your families!

As you well know, my husband and I have a mixed-marriage. It is, after all, the premise of this blog. But did you know we have another kind of mixed-marriage? By the time you read this, we will be embarking on a pilgrimage traditional to our people: the drive down the I-5.

Yes, we have some cultural differences because I am Asian and he is white, but there is another chasm we must bridge. We have a Nor Cal – So Cal union. I am native to the San Francisco Bay Area, and many of my relatives also live in the area. My husband is from Orange County, and his immediate family and many extended relatives also reside south of the Grapevine (the 5000 ft. mountain pass separating California’s Central Valley from the LA Basin). Which makes for a lot of driving around the holidays.

So I am packing up my polarfleece hoodie and cargo pants and heading down to the land of year-round tans. Perhaps you are filling up your suitcase with Juicy sweatpants for your trip north. Don’t forget, it’s a good ten degrees cooler up here!

It has been a long time since we have driven on Christmas Eve (one child, diapers). We tried it, thinking, Everyone else will already be at grandma’s house by then. We’ll drive at night, while the baby is sleeping. Big mistake. It was like sitting in rush hour traffic. For ten hours. There was also some kind of motorcycle run going on at the same time. There was no sleep.

The kids are older now. We have a minivan, complete with DVD player. We know better, but we are driving down the I-5 anyway. It’s part of our culture.

See you at the drive-through Starbucks!