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If there is one thing that is synonomous with Christmas, it would be family. My brother was flying in from Washington DC for the holidays and it will have been years since our family was all together for Christmas. My parents picked him up from the airport a couple days prior and I drove up Friday night for our Christmas weekend, my parents living 30 miles from Green Bay.

The season was over long ago for the Packers, they coming in with 3 wins for the season and 2 games to go so the "big" game with the Bears on Christmas Day had turned out to be not so big. Still, it was Packer football and it was going to be me and my brother spending the day at Lambeau Field.

Saturday was spent doing Christmas with the family, presents were shaken, rattled, and unwrapped, and we had a nice Christmas dinner. Everyone was happy with what Santa had brought but the real gift was being together as a family.

Sunday was game day and my brother and I drove the 30 miles to Lambeau Field. We were concerned about the weather but it was in the low 30's which isn't too bad. It could have been worse.

The game itself was pretty much as expected. The Bears were the better team and the win clinched them the division title, much to the joy of the many Bears fans that were in attendance. The freebie du jour was a Santa hat with the Packers "G" logo on it so that was kind of cool.

Regardless of the score, here is what I thought was the best part of the day: I have two single seats but they are back-to-back. The "front" seat, the two seats on the left, those are owned by a couple from the town of Howard. They managed to get 4 extra tickets for their kids so that they could all come together as a family. The ages of the children range from about 5 to 9 and it was the first time for them to ever be at Lambeau Field for the game. Two of the tickets they bought were in a different section with a better view so it wasn't hard for them to swap with another couple so that the kids could have a seat by their parents. It worked great for me because I was able to hop in the back row and sit next to my brother.

As dismal as this season was for the Packers and Packer fans, these two people still wanted to take their kids to a game and go together as a family. When you see things like that it just puts it all into perspective. Families stick together during the bad times and all of us in the Packer family were here to cheer on our team. Together. As a family.

This was in such huge contrast to the Bears fans. During the game one of them stood up holding a big sign all around as if he wanted to rub our noses in it. Here is what the sign said: "LION FAN LOOKING FOR A NEW TEAM TO ROOT FOR"

If that's all it takes to be a Bear fan, to jump on and off the bandwagon, then you're not being true to yourself. You're not being true to your family. Suddenly the score didn't matter, the season record didn't matter. What it meant to be a fan was sitting right in front of me, that couple who came up with $200 so they could bring their kids to Lambeau Field and experience true Packer football. And for one of the worst seasons on record. I can't say this is a trait you find only with Packer fans but the lesson is learned game after game, year after year, you see this all the time here in Green Bay.

The Bears fans left that day, all warm and fuzzy with their clinching the division, but what did they really take home with them that Christmas day? We Packer fans were all there as a family, taking the bad as we've done with the good, and grateful for what we have.

Packer fans are truly a single family, all sharing something special, together. That is something fans from other teams will never understand. They'll argue about it but they just don't understand. You can change your jersey and hold up a sign proclaiming some sort of allegiance but that doesn't make you family.

I learned a lot about family that Christmas day.