This article is for those of you with fractured families. Maybe the holidays have always been stressful and unpleasant because your family argues. Maybe it’s worse in the 2020s because your family is at political odds, and your liberal family actually thinks you’re a Nazi and says so. Maybe you’ve been estranged from your family for years.

My guess is that many people who fit the description above have abandoned Christmas or any holiday celebrations. I know I did for years. My sister and I grew up in a family headed by an abusive, mentally and morally deranged mother. Our childhood was full of screaming, wooden spoons broken across our backsides, and bizarre punishments for crimes we didn’t commit.

My mother wasn’t actually there in the room with us in 1985. She didn’t see us. She was a little girl in her cold childhood home in 1960 screaming at her parents.

Maybe you’ve abandoned some of your family’s traditions too. Maybe, like me, you’ve spent years alone at Christmas. You don’t put up a tree. You don’t make that special dish.

But you don’t have to let the sorrowful ghosts of Christmases past turn every Christmas future into lonely melancholy. If you have just one single friend, or one single family member whose company you enjoy, I encourage you to haul out the holly, make that special dish, and bring the peace and comfort of Christmas back into your life.

If you grew up like I did, you need this, and you deserve it.

Going home, wherever that may be

This year, my sister and I are going to have a merry Christmas with her family. We are estranged from our mother but not from each other. Now my sister, my brother-in-law, and my nephew are my family. When I visit them at Christmas, I’m going home.

We’re going to have a loving holiday like we wanted to have, but could not, when we were children. We’re going to cook for each other, sing along to the Carpenters’ Christmas album (on a record player, of course), and string popcorn with a needle and thread to make the old-fashioned poor-people garlands we loved to put on the tree when we were young.

That’s not the only family tradition we’re going to relive, and that’s key. While we had a nightmare childhood, there were parts of it that are worth cherishing. There are traditions in our family that we do not have to “let go.” We don’t have to allow the traditions to be emotionally contaminated by our mother’s histrionic meltdowns at the holidays.

That was a lesson my sister and I learned only over time. In my younger years, I stayed by myself doing nothing and celebrating nothing. “Christmas” seemed like a sick and painful joke. What was there to celebrate (I recognize the religious celebration of Jesus’ birth, but I’m focused on something different here) about a time of year that brought shouting, accusations, and thrown dishes?

Our mother had borderline personality disorder. Such people have wild, extreme mood swings within minutes or hours. Under stress, they often lose their ability to control their emotions at all. For example, our mother could swing from raucous laughter to ugly crying while making plausibly deniable suicide threats: “I don’t feel I have anything to live for, and none of you would miss me anyway.”

She tried

But you know, she tried. We were poor, and our condition reminded my mother of her own childhood poverty. She had it worse than we did. For years, my mother lived in what I call “Appalachia of the North.” They had no hot running water, no indoor bathroom, and electricity was only a sometimes-service. Obviously gifts were few at Christmas time.

She wanted us to have a better Christmas than she had as a girl. We always put up a tree, we played the Christmas music, and my mother would usually make lasagna (I’m going to tell you how to make Christmas lasagna below). She couldn’t afford a huge pile of presents for us, but Aunt Vivian and Uncle Marty always sent a huge package of wrapped, brand-name presents to us kids. To us, it was magic. We did feel lucky.

But it couldn’t last. By about 4 p.m., mother would be in hysterics. It was nothing we children provoked. We were happy opening our presents, we thanked mom for everything she did, and we looked forward to Christmas dinner.

Out of the blue, she’d start yelling. We didn’t pick the wrapping paper up quickly enough. We didn’t save the pre-strung bows for next year (“Those are expensive, and you act like I’m made of money!”). It could be anything. She’d scream-cry about how “nothing I ever do is good enough for you kids!” or “I work so hard to make a nice holiday, and I wonder why the f**k I do because NONE OF YOU APPRECIATE IT!”

The lasagna would be slammed down on the table while we looked down at our hands trying not to cry (crying provoked punishment).

My mother wasn’t actually there in the room with us in 1985. She didn’t see us. She was a little girl in her cold childhood home in 1960 screaming at her parents. That didn’t make it right for her to inflict it on us, but I’m old enough now that I understand what was going on in her mind.

And now all of that is gone. It’s over. It’s no part of our lives. And it never will be again.

RELATED: A caregiver’s Christmas

Evrymmnt via iStock/Getty Images

An extraordinary blessing

As adults in our 40s, my sister and I got to know each other as real, whole people for the first time. Instead of being children alternately banding together to protect each other from mother, or as adversaries triangulated against each other to serve my mother’s whims, we met as brother and sister. And as adult friends.

We learned that not only did we love each other, but we liked each other too. It’s an extraordinary blessing.

I want this for you too. Whoever you are. I know some of you don’t have any family left, and I’m sorry. Do you have a friend similarly situated? Maybe he can come to your table this year.

If you have anyone to gather with at Christmas, revive an old family tradition of yours that you’ve neglected for years because it’s associated with hard memories. Maybe it’s a particular carol. Maybe it’s a special dish (our family is English by heritage, so we make Christmas pudding, for example). Whatever it is, why not “repurpose” it? Imbue it with peace and happiness from your life today. Give it new life. Give it love.

Christmas lasagna

This year, I’m going to make Christmas lasagna. For some reason, that dish became our family’s classic Christmas dinner, and I think it’s great. Here’s how to do it. Take your favorite lasagna recipe, but use these methods to alter it:

This is a meat-and-spinach lasagna (red and green for Christmas, see?).Mix the ricotta with two cloves of chopped garlic, a beaten egg, and a dash of basil and oregano. Don’t forget salt and pepper.Mix the spinach with mozzarella, and make that your one green layer.For the meat, use half ground beef and half Italian sausage.

If you make this and don’t like it, I’ll eat my hat.

Remember the Velveteen Rabbit. He was old and worn, and the world thought he wasn’t worth anything anymore and was best left to the past.

“Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, then you become real.”

Christmas wasn’t made real for us in the right way long ago. But we’ve made it real again today, in our late middle age, because we love each other.

God bless you, and merry Christmas.

​Christmas, Family, Lifestyle, Borderline personality disorder, Cluster b, Merry christmas, Intervention 

One of my daughter’s favorite parts of the holidays was being together with our entire family. She had a way of drawing everyone in, captivating us with her stories and adventures. She loved the lights, the sounds, and the energy of the season — the warmth and joy that made the holidays feel alive.

This Christmas will my family’s first without her joy and her warmth. Her life was taken too soon by someone who shouldn’t have been here to begin with. It didn’t have to be this way, and those responsible should be held accountable.

Christmas is a time for mercy. Katie was a merciful person and was quick to forgive. But we need more than mercy to move forward.

My daughter Katie Abraham was just 20 years old on January 19, when she was killed on the streets of Urbana, Illinois, by an illegal alien. Every day since has been marked by a void that cannot be filled — a pain that deepens as we approach the first anniversary of her death.

Her life was stolen by Julio Cucul-Bol, an illegal alien using an alias, who fled on foot after slamming into the vehicle she was riding in at nearly 80 miles per hour.

Bol was driving drunk and had previously been deported. In federal court, through an interpreter, he stated that he had no formal education, could not read or write in any language, and did not speak English — even after years in this country.

I refuse to accept that what happened to my little girl was accidental. The factors that caused her death were deliberate, reckless, and completely avoidable. They are the direct result of extreme sanctuary policies championed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and his political allies. Illinois leaders deliberately ignore the harm these policies cause families like mine because acknowledging it would expose their recklessness.

Compassion, in Illinois, seems reserved exclusively for illegal aliens — while victims and citizens are forgotten.

Bol was eventually apprehended by U.S. marshals two days after President Trump took office, caught in south Texas while heading for the border. I am grateful to the president, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE for securing the border immediately. Had Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas remained in charge, I firmly believe Bol would have escaped into Mexico and would never have been held accountable.

Bol accepted a plea deal of 30 years, of which he will serve 85%. Still, he killed two women and injured three others. No matter how it is framed, justice feels incomplete.

My daughter’s killer shouldn’t have been here in the first place, but Pritzker and the other sanctuary politicians in Springfield did everything they could to protect him from federal law enforcement. No accountability. No protection for law-abiding citizens. They call it compassion. These officials pretend to care about everyone while actually caring about no one.

Which brings me to the question that will not leave my mind: Where is the responsibility of the state of Illinois?

Does Illinois bear no responsibility for policies that allowed someone so dangerous to live freely among us? Who in state government will step up and challenge these policies? Who will speak for Katie?

So far, not a single Illinois politician has. Our governor is silent when it comes to my daughter, even as he loudly defends those who entered our state illegally and without vetting.

RELATED: Trump celebrates historic crime drop in hostile sanctuary city after federal ‘blitz’: DHS

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children — only to watch radical leaders advance policies that put them in harm’s way. It is infuriating to have no recourse against the destructive one-party rule of what was once a great state. Politicians shield themselves with immunity while families like mine live with irreversible consequences.

I have lived in Illinois my entire life. I remember when this state had guardrails — when it would have intervened to protect its citizens, especially its children. That Illinois no longer exists.

Another word defines our current reality: exemption.

Why do some groups receive exemptions from personal responsibility while others do not? Why are repeated violations of federal and state law rewarded rather than punished? Illinois leadership seems to believe that those who break countless laws will somehow transform into model citizens once released without consequence. History tells us the opposite.

Christmas is indeed a time for mercy. Katie was a merciful person and was quick to forgive. But we need more than mercy to move forward. The theologian Thomas Aquinas famously said that “mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution,” and he was right. Forgiveness without accountability is not compassion — it is negligence.

Without that accountability and the acknowledgment of wrongdoing, the people of Illinois will continue to suffer, and sanctuary policies will just create more victims.

So I ask again: Where is Pritzker’s responsibility? Where is the responsibility of the state of Illinois?

Because families like mine are paying the price.

​Christmas, Katie abraham, Illinois, Opinion & analysis, Jb pritzker, Sanctuary policies, Sanctuary states, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice raids, Chicago, Crime, Drunk driving deaths, Drunk driver, Illegal aliens, Illegal immigrants, Criminal aliens, Democrats, Homeland security, Accountability, Justice 

If you’re a parent, you may have wandered into the stage of life where all of your children are no longer gathered around your Christmas tree on Christmas morning — and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is no stranger to this stage.

“You pine for the days when we were all together,” Glenn says, before recalling his best and worst Christmases.

“I remember I was broke, dead broke. Stu, he was, like, 18 years old, and he’s living in an apartment. He’s got a nicer apartment than I did. We lived in the same complex. I was, like, 35 or 40. And I just was completely broke,” Glenn recalls.

“I was with my daughter, and we were in a CVS, and she was there by the cash register, and there was this little ornament. … It was a little teeny tree ornament. And she’s like, ‘Oh, that is so nice.’ And she was little little. And I thought, ‘Oh.’ … It just broke my heart because all I could think of is, ‘I can’t even afford that. I’m such a loser as a dad,’” he continues.

However, this was not Glenn’s worst Christmas.

“My worst Christmas was the first time I had real success, and I decided, I’m going to buy everything I ever have ever wanted for my kids. And literally the boxes were almost up to my waist. I mean, I had all the kids and all the presents and everything you could possibly want,” Glenn explains.

“And it was so empty. That was my worst Christmas. And my kids never talk about that Christmas. Never,” he says.

“Somewhere along the line, we let that lie creep in, and we bought into it — the lie that says what I give is what you’re worth. That lie is absolute poison, and it’s absolutely not true,” he continues.

“You think that your kids are counting boxes, and quite honestly, teenage years, they might be. They might be. But they grow out of those. You just put up with the teenage years. They’re coming. They suck. They go away. They’re not counting boxes; they’re not looking at labels. … They’re counting on you,” he adds.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Video phone, Video, Free, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Glenn, Stu burguiere, Christmas story, Christmas spirit, Christmas stories 

With America Fest coming to a close just days before Christmas, woke protesters showed no signs of taking a hiatus to celebrate the holiday. BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales went into the fray outside AmFest and came back with some footage of the nonsense the protesters were spewing.

While Gonzales interviewed multiple leftists outside the AmFest venue, one woman stole the show.

‘It’s just signs with really mean words on them and brain-dead individuals holding them, not able to back it up.’

The woman mocked Jesus Christ, shouted about explicit sexual acts with children around, and mocked Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk.

At one point, Gonzales and the protester wearing the “Deport Melania” hat began arguing about whether there were children present, given that the protester was shouting and blasting explicit music.

“Oh, I’m so upset. There’s all these kids. You guys, there’s no kids. There’s no children here — unless you’re talking about the one I haven’t aborted yet! Am I right? Am I right?” she laughed.

The protester demanded that the cameraman pan around, and at least one kid was in the vicinity.

RELATED: Allie Beth Stuckey delivers bold speech at TPUSA AmericaFest: ‘Truth divides’

Concerned by this performance, Gonzales asked the woman several times if she was on drugs.

Gonzales also interviewed a man wearing a mask, sunglasses, bucket hat, and gloves who was carrying an American flag and a megaphone.

However, he refused to speak with Gonzales directly. Rather, to her disgust, he appears to have said, “I really love how Charlie Kirk hasn’t said anything racist in 90 days.”

“Are you happy with Charlie Kirk’s assassination? Cracking jokes? What is a racist thing that Charlie Kirk has said?”

He didn’t have an answer.

“Nothing,” Gonzales said. “Not a thing. These people have nothing. They stand here with their big signs and their big megaphones and they shout these tropes, and then when I ask them to explain themselves, they never can.”

Gonzales also got footage of a man in a giraffe costume singing a rendition of “YMCA” that changed the lyrics to say “f**k ICE,” among other mostly inaudible phrases.

The giraffe suit-wearing man was surrounded by other protesters, some carrying signs that said, for example, “Turning Point + Biggs = White Supremacy,” and “No Christo-Fascist Bulls**t Here.”

“Biggs” appears to refer to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a featured AmFest speaker.

Gonzales tried one more time to talk to another person with a megaphone and a sign that said, “Stop the Nazi S**t.” Once again, the protester couldn’t, or wouldn’t, provide an explanation. Instead, she just played what sounded like a police siren to drown out the interviewer.

Over the sound of the siren, Gonzales said, “It’s so crazy. They come here with these signs, and they have nothing to back it up. They don’t know what they mean. They can’t explain them. They can’t define them. It’s just signs with really mean words on them and brain-dead individuals holding them, not able to back it up.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Blazetv, Sara gonzales, Turning point usa, Woke protesters, Amfest, Americafest, America, Charlie kirk, Ice, Erika kirk 

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on March 15 invoking the Alien Enemies Act and declaring that Tren de Aragua is “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization” aligned with the Venezuelan Maduro regime that “is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”

Within hours of invoking the AEA, the Trump administration deported over 130 suspected Venezuelan gangsters — many of whom were credibly accused of murder, robbery, rape, and other crimes — to El Salvador, where they were placed in a Salvadoran prison for terrorists.

In July, the administration had Venezuelan deportees who were imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center repatriated to Venezuela, where they were welcomed home by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

‘Chief Judge Boasberg has compromised the impartiality of the judiciary.’

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, the Obama appointee who tried unsuccessfully to stop the illegal aliens’ March 15 removal from the U.S., certified the Venezuelan deportees as a class on Monday and ordered the administration to offer them legal relief abroad, though stopping short of ordering their return to the United States.

“The Court finds that the only remedy that would give effect to its granting of Plaintiffs’ Motion would be to order the Government to undo the effects of their unlawful removal by facilitating a meaningful opportunity to contest their designation and the Proclamation’s validity,” wrote Boasberg.

“Otherwise, a finding of unlawful removal would be meaningless for Plaintiffs, who have already been sent back to Venezuela against their wishes and without due process.”

RELATED: Judges break the law to stop Trump from enforcing it

Accused gangster at the Counter Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

“Expedited removal cannot be allowed to render this relief toothless,” continued the activist judge. “If secretly spiriting individuals to another country were enough to neuter the Great Writ, then ‘the Government could snatch anyone off the street, turn him over to a foreign country, and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action.'”

Boasberg — the activist judge who helped the Biden FBI spy on Republican lawmakers’ phone records, ordered in August the release of a woman accused of repeatedly threatening Trump’s life, and mandated a right to Medicaid for able-bodied adults without work requirements — gave the government a deadline of Jan. 5 to “submit its proposal either to facilitate the return of Plaintiffs to the United States or to otherwise provide them with hearings that satisfy the requirements of due process.”

The Obama judge indicated that the Venezuelans needn’t demonstrate that the president’s AEA invocation was unlawful but rather that their designation as alien enemies was incorrect.

“The merits of Plaintiffs’ due-process claim are easily resolved,” he wrote. “Even if the AEA was properly invoked as a general matter, it is beyond cavil that designated ‘alien enemies’ under that act must be afforded some process to contest their designation. … Here, Plaintiffs received none.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the suspected foreign gangsters, said in a statement, “This administration cannot escape judicial scrutiny of its policies, which has been its goal all along.”

The ACLU noted further that “this is an important ruling for these men who were tortured, and for the rule of law.”

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

Rob Luther, a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, said in response to the ruling, “I predict that in 2026, Judge Boasberg will make history as the 16th judge impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg on Nov. 4, stating, “Chief Judge Boasberg has compromised the impartiality of the judiciary and created a constitutional crisis.”

A simple majority is needed to pass articles of impeachment for a judge in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Judicial activism, Activism, Boasberg, Obama judge, Judge, District court, Enemy aliens, Illegal aliens, Venezuela, Deportation, Venezuelan, Politics 

An elderly fire department member was mauled to death by a pack of dogs in North Carolina, according to authorities. Now a dog owner has been charged with murder, and the pit bull-mixes involved in the dog attack reportedly have been euthanized.

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that deputies were dispatched to a residence around 7:43 p.m. Nov. 18.

‘He was deeply loved, and his absence has left a pain that words cannot fully express.’

Deputies discovered 73-year-old Michael Bodenheimer “lying deceased in the front yard of the residence.”

Police said Bodenheimer had “sustained severe injuries and was beyond the possibility of life-saving intervention.”

“Preliminary findings at the scene indicated that his injuries were consistent with an attack by a large pack of canines,” the sheriff’s office stated.

Officers tracked down a “pack of aggressive canines” at a property nearby, and members of the Davidson County Animal Control captured 17 dogs, identified as “pit bull-mixed breeds.”

The animals were euthanized, and necropsies were conducted.

According to WBTV-TV, officers claimed that 56-year-old owner Elaina Bryant of Thomasville let the dogs run loose at night, and they “lived in feces without food.” Citing the arrest warrant, the station added that the dogs were underweight and had not received vaccinations or veterinary care.

The indictment alleges the dogs were left without fresh water and adequate shelter.

WBTV reported that there was an enclosure “infested with fleas and vermin and covered in excrement.” Authorities alleged that the enclosure had not been cleaned in weeks or months, according to the indictment.

Investigators described the dogs as living in “conditions of squalor and starvation,” the indictment said.

RELATED: ‘Savage’ pit bulls with cocaine in their systems kill gardening grandmother in ‘gruesome’ mauling: Lawsuit

An autopsy conducted on Bodenheimer confirmed that he died as a result of injuries sustained in the brutal dog mauling, according to police.

Detectives determined that Bryant owned the dogs involved in the fatal attack. Citing court documents, the Charlotte Observer reported that Bryant lives about half a mile west of Bodenheimer’s home.

The sheriff’s office investigation concluded that Bryant was “grossly negligent in the care and control of the animals.”

Bryant was arrested Dec. 17, and a Davidson County Grand Jury indicted her on one count of second-degree murder and 17 counts of felony animal abuse, WYMY-TV reported.

Bryant is being detained at the Davidson County Detention Center on a $500,000 secured bond set by a Davidson County Superior Court judge.

Her next court date is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026, in Davidson County Superior Court.

Bodenheimer’s family said in a statement to WYFF-TV, “Our family is heartbroken by the loss of our father. He was deeply loved, and his absence has left a pain that words cannot fully express.”

The family said that they were aware of the charges filed against Bryant.

“We have full confidence in the legal process and will allow it to move forward without further comment,” the family said.

“Our focus remains on honoring our father’s life, his values, and the love he shared with those around him,” the statement read. “We appreciate the support, prayers, and kindness that have been extended to our family during this incredibly difficult time.”

Bodenheimer’s obituary read, “Mike had a generous spirit and faithfully served his community by volunteering with the Fair Grove Fire Department and Friends Disaster Service.”

The fire department said in a statement:

Mike was a long-time member of the Fair Grove Fire Department serving the Fair Grove community for many years. This particular incident involving one of our own has hit the department pretty hard since several of our current members served with him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, as well as our own members.

The investigation is ongoing.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Animals, Crime, Dog abuse, Dog attack, Dog mauling, Dogs, Mauled to death, Murder charge, Pit bull attack, Pit bulls, When animals attack, North carolina