A Very "Parenthood" Christmas

Finally! "Parenthood" had a Christmas episode! If only it didn't start out as such a downer.  But it didn't end that way.  

For those of you who missed it on December 11  - and fie on you if you did - Kristina, in the middle of a battle with cancer, wakes up on Christmas Eve night very sick owing to a loss of white blood cells and spends Christmas Day in the hospital seemingly close to death . . . and close to Adam, who sits silently and selflessly at her side while trying to keep as much of the rest of the Braverman family as possible ignorant of her condition so as not to ruin their Christmas.  Only his brother Crosby and his father - whom Crosby tells - find out, while the rest of the family tries to enjoy Christmas.  But it's not easy.

Amber encourages her Afghanistan War veteran boyfriend, who had walked off a job she got him with her uncle Joel on a construction site, to apologize to her uncle and gives him the keys to her orange Simca to drive to Joel's house. He never gets to her uncle's house, but he gets drunk and damages her car, causing what turns out to be an unfathomable rift between them; Amber, despite the fact that he loves her boyfriend, breaks up with him after seeing how damaging his demons are . . . and being reminded of how her mother Sarah had to go through the same thing with her (Amber's) drug-addicted rock musician father. 

Meanwhile, Sarah has broken up with her fiancé Mark, continuing a tradition of having an ex-fiancé of Sarah's in the Braverman family holiday card photo (her relationships always go sour after her family includes her steady boyfriends in the pics) - after Mark has decided she spends too much time worrying about her photographer boss Hank's personal life.  Ironically, the normally cynical Hank (Ray Romano) has a Christmas present of his own for Sarah . . . a beautifully composed photographic portrait of her. ;-)       

Ultimately, Kristina recovers, and Adam is able to have the entire Braverman family visit her in the hospital. Crosby and Jasmine, having babysat Adam and Kristina's baby girl Nora, are suddenly ready to consider a second child of their own.  Julia and Joel's adopted son Victor, having insisted he doesn't believe in Santa Claus, isn't so sure of his earlier position when, in the hospital visiting his aunt, he encounters a hospital Santa who tells him he hopes he liked the new sneakers he got . . . how did he know they were a Christmas present? :-D

I was expecting a somber, morose Christmas episode when I saw the promotional clips for it; I was convinced that Kristina was going to die, and I even checked the entertainment news sites for possible news of Monica Potter, who plays Kristina, leaving the show.  Instead, I got a very uplifting, hopeful  and very nicely done Christmas episode that, from the writers and producers of "Parenthood," was long, long overdue. 

There won't be any additional episodes for "Parenthood"'s typically limited seasonal run.  But it will be back on New Year's Day, and any new "Parenthood" episode or season is always worth the wait.

And I hope Amber finds herself a new boyfriend . . . and gets the bodywork on her Simca repaired.  Hey, it's a classic! :-)