i've decided something very important

[SeaCat]

Darlin, if i had the ability to travel this holiday season, i would be with my family. It's not my choice to be away from them. The last holiday season i spent with them was six years ago, and even then the inlaws didn't approve of it all that much. None of them wanted to go along and they didn't approve of my traveling alone with a baby and being pregnant.

i'm just wildly jealous that you'll be spending time with each other, and with friends, and that i won't be. Self-pity just happens to be the order of the day.

i'll be cheeky enough to take you up on that offer once the mood changes. As it is, the gesture is appreciated.

Darlin,

Let me enlighten you on my family. My family is in New England and New Jersey. My brother is a born again. My sister thinks that she is entitled to what ever she wants because she hasn't held a job ever. (Her kids are just as bad.) My In-Laws have decided that they would rather spend their time as missionaries instead of visiting with their daughter.

My wife and I wil be working. The woman I would love to add to our family will be spending the holidays with her family, who disaprove of her getting rid of her abusive husband. (She stuck a six inch steak knife in his belly, damn but I respect this lady. My wife loves her and is only dealing with what she thinks society will think of us if we add her to our family circle.)

My wife and I will enjoy our holiday season despite this. We will have fun. Not because of what is happening but despite it.

Enjoy your children, enjoy what you can of life. It is all we have.

The offer is there, as it is to two other people. (One on this board and one near by.) Nothing is demanded, nothing is expected.

Cat
The Jaded Knight

 

[Guest]

*smiles sadly*

Yule is my day because of my beliefs....

anyone that has read my submission to the holiday contest knows why christmas can go straight to bottom of an abyss....

I am with you ent luv.... I want nothing to do with these holidays

however... I cannot stand little kids going without.... I learned that one lesson from my mother... so I go and grab a bunch of those things on the trees that say present boy or girl and their age....

*shrugs some*

 

[hugo_sam]

I agree with Cat and Carson. Many people have truly horrid memories and happenstances during the holidays. However, you cannot keep paying for past mistakes, yours or someone elses. The holidays are what you make of them. Starting new traditions, bringing new people into your life and enjoying what you have to the fullest, these things make the holidays special. More often than not the direction and happiness in your life it up to you and the decisions you make. Happy Holidays, regardless of how you celebrate.

 

[cloudy]

My feelings about Christmas became extremely cynical after working in retail for close to twenty years, and they've never rebounded. If not for my children, it would be just another day to me.

I wish it wasn't like that, I truly do. But when you're tied to someone who clearly hates you, holidays aren't much fun. It's not about the gifts, it's about the feelings, and around here, there's not many good ones. Hopefully, the situation will change soon, because I really would like to enjoy the holidays now that I'm not working.

My holiday planning, boxing, wrapping gets expended for Pine Ridge, so that if I can't have a nice holiday, at least someone can, and that makes mine better.

 

[Guest]

My feelings about Christmas became extremely cynical after working in retail for close to twenty years, and they've never rebounded. If not for my children, it would be just another day to me.

I wish it wasn't like that, I truly do.

I could have so written this. Retail beats the hell out of you over Christmas. I got anxious being in a store last night, and would swear off entering a retail establishment from Nov 15 thru about Jan 5 if I could stock away enough food and essentials.

Plus, Christmas for an adult, is a wonderful reminder that living paycheck to paycheck as many of us do, means we can't do for our families as much as we'd like during the holiday. Then there is the whole guilt of not being able to travel to be with both sides of the family (opposite places) while staying home too and enjoy Christmas with the immediate family.

And then there is the reminder the house is a mess, and you have a lot of work to do before you can decorate. And outside Christmas lights??? What torturer came up with the concept of sticking Dad up on a ladder in freezing weather, gale force winds, wet weather, to work with cheap, unreliable lights, and electricity (did I mention wet?) !

And then there is always the possibility that all the fun of Christmas will be augmented by a winter storm, blizzard etc. to complicate what otherwise is a carefree, simple time.

In the words of a great, insightful commentator on Christmas : Bah Humbug!

 

[JRaven]

The holiday I hate most is Thanksgiving. Both sides live in the same metro area, so travel is not only possible, it's EXPECTED.

My mother demands that the whole family be at her house for Thanksgiving. She holds dinner in early afternoon. Most times, either I get to talking to my sisters or my husband decides to have just one more beer (for the third time). We finally leave amid the guilt trip my mother lays on me for not staying with the family.

When we make it to my sister-in-laws where his family has dinner, it's about 6 o'clock. An hour late for dinner. His sisters will be all pissed off and start yelling at him for being late. My husband just smiles at them and stand there.

His mother will remind everyone that she remembers what it was like having to be at two different families for Thanksgiving. She tell us that she loves us and thank us for coming. Sometimes, I think my mother-in-law is the only sane one on either side.

Christmas is close to the same thing. But thankfully, the times to be at each house are seperated a little more widely. Still, it can be a fiasco sometimes. My husband had a chance to transfer away the area. During the holidays, I wish we had!

And, of course, in our house ...

(5) The financial low ground: "Umm. Sorry. I seem to have spent most of the money on dog toys and cat treaties, so I have these, um, D-cell batteries ..."

Shanglan

Horsey,
You may want to check what size her vibe uses before you spring for the D-cells. Mine uses C's.

Jenny

 

[JRaven]

Retail sucks

Cloudy and Ted-E-Bare,
I worked in a discount store for almost two years. I started in the spring. After the first Christmas, I told myself that I wouldn't do it again. I quit the next November. People can be rude, pushy, bossy, and out right mean during the Chirstmas season. I'm just glad I wasn't working there during the Tickle-Me-Elmo craze!

Jenny

 

[BlackShanglan]

Horsey,
You may want to check what size her vibe uses before you spring for the D-cells. Mine uses C's.

*laugh* Good point.

Actually, it was a self-in-joke to a past Christmas gift that I will never, ever be able to live down. I knew not what I did *wince*.

Shanglan