One of our listeners, Brianna, tells us about the curse that plagued her family for four years. Each year, a different member of her family “ruined” Christmas.

Kelly loved her dad, then she lost her dad. Kelly loved her grandpa, then she lost her grandpa. Now that Kelly’s a mom herself, she wants to ensure that her son knows he’s loved, no matter what comes.

When Laura gets a call from the hospital telling her that her dad has severe frostbite and could die, Laura is shocked. Not because of the whole frostbite part ... but because her dad is alive. She hasn't seen or talked to him in years and honestly assumed he was long dead.

This is a story about what happens when we realize our parents are, in fact, real people — and that real people mess up and make mistakes.

The Achilli siblings would like you to know that if there was a Dead Parent Contest (there's not), they would win the gold medal. In 2008, their dad was murdered by a hitman in a dispute over a girlfriend. Four years after their father's killers are tried and convicted, their mom dies after driving her car off a cliff.

This is a story about being orphaned as young adults and the family ties that keep siblings together.