After one of the saddest days in U.S. history earlier this week, the Harris-Emhoff family is here to bless our timelines with five minutes of pure joy.
Like many families across the U.S. during the pandemic, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff have been gathering on Zoom with far-flung family members most Sundays. The chats bring together grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, children, and siblings from across the country and around the world, including Canada, India, and Italy. (The VP-elect’s team wouldn’t give us a full list of who’s who and their exact locations due to security concerns.)
In this oh so relatable video, filmed on January 3, we learn the soon to be Second Family is…just like us! They pass out early on New Year’s Eve, wear the same sweatshirt over and over (thanks for affirming my hygiene choices, Doug!), and have mixed feelings about eating the same leftovers for days on end. We also learn how the VP-elect rang in the New Year. Doug cooked “the best steaks in the world,” on December 31, while Kamala cooked a feast of black-eyed peas, greens, cornbread, and fried catfish on New Year’s Day. (Ella, I see you drooling over the menu and…same.)
As hard as the last year has been, one silver lining for many—including the Harris-Emhoffs—has been realizing that in a remote world, our relationships with family and friends are no longer dictated by geography. “We are so blessed as a family to have each other, and all the zooms—Doug and I talk about it all the time—all the Zooms that we’ve been doing every Sunday some combination of all the family,” Kamala says.
“There’s no way we could have gotten through this crazy year without you and doing these Zooms,” Doug adds. “We have said to each other, like everyone, we’re sad we can’t be with everyone in person, but then we say, but we’re so much closer with our entire family because of these Zooms.”