Originally Posted by DBlain  thinking about this non holiday spirit, I have to say I have spirit now, but LOL loose it later. Why because I go to NY from MI pretty much every year to celebrate with my parents and only sister and her family. But the stress they put themselves under is crazy and it winds up spoiling it for me. Each year I say I am not going back but of course I do. My parents bless there heart argue constantly, well really it's my mom, she is always yelling at my dad to do something and since he is almost deaf he can't hear her, so it's her yelling BILL and him yelling WHAT the whole time I am there. She still can not face the fact that he is almost completely deaf and not ignoring her so it makes her angry that he does not hear her. My sister, her husband and daughter are constantly fighting. She hosts Christmas Dinner and since they will not help her with the preparations it puts her in a bad mood, she is always running behind so she starts barking orders at them and me and then everyone starts arguing, last year she told her DH not to put real wood on the fire, but he put pine logs on, which aggravated her allergies so after appetizers she went to her bedroom mad and stayed there until we were finished desert. Her 16 yr old is testy and even though my sister knows what pushes her buttons she starts in at her, so shortly before dinner my niece left in a huff with her boyfriend. Ian had to work the next day, so he spent Christmas day driving back home to MI by himself. My cousin will be hosting Christmas Eve this year like he did last year and that went very well, but LOL he insists on doing a full blown dinner which is just like the one my sister cooks the next day, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, pies etc. He will not change his menu since he is single and preorders it at the grocery store and my sister will not change her menu because "WE ALWAYS" have ham, meanwhile I sort of hate ham, so I have to eat it two days in a row. Ian on the other hand loves ham yet he seems to always be driving home on Christmas so last year he was happy my cousin served it and gave him a doggie bag to take home. This Christmas was supposed to be a normal NY trip, i.e. Ian and I drive there, he drives back the day after Christmas and I fly back to MI after the weekend. Ian works at GM, Christmas week is always part of his vacation, well typical now there is talk they might work, while it is not mandatory he wants to work because it winds up being triple time. I would love to have this as an excuse to stay home but I already bought a return airline ticket, Broadway show tickets with my sister and I have a gathering of HS friends that I organized. Ian thinks I should fly out to NY and he can stay home and work. (which secretely I think he is happy about since he will miss a very Seinfeld like Christmas) But of course typical GM does not want to announce this yet, so we are left not knowing, which means I will probably loose the good air fair that Spirit is now offering.
Hard to believe at 58 I still have all this family craziness, but actually we are very close and love each other to pieces so I hate to miss it. But I keep saying why can't we make it less about the food and all the preparations and just enjoy each other. I really think so much emphasis is put on making it special that in some families the stress just takes over and ruins the fun.
Anyway I thought my story would help give you guys a laugh that are feeling a bit humbuggish |