Long live the nuclear family

During this holidays I was reflecting on the total uncoolness of our celebrations compared to the glossy lifestyle one would aim for (one meaning me). After meeting up with different groups of friends I realize that around us uncool seems to be the new cool and spending Christmas or New Year's Eve only with your "gezin" (Dutch word for the English term "nuclear family, which sounds a bit like sociology jargon though) seems to be the norm more than an exception.
When you have a partner and children your ecosystem seems to be complete, I beg to differ I definitely go with Nick  Hornby on this, a nuclear family is not complete, you need backup. Wherever this backup might be coming from.

I am not sure whether this thought makes me cool or uncool but it definitely makes me uncomfortable with the trends I see. Being Italian I have of course an Italian point of view on these celebrations, but I left Italy a long time ago and I have a sneaky feeling that things are changing there as well.

I consciously chose not to spend the holidays in Italy with the rest of my family and now I am living through this period like through a long lab experiment, heavy but interesting.
Another two days and all will be over, with the hope that the collected data will allow me to engineer the perfect holidays for next year.