RANT - I fricken HATE this time of year

Don't know exactly where the appropriate place to put this is, but I figure this is good enough.

I seriously hate this time of year.... Half my family can't figure out their holiday plans, the other half makes plans and invites me and my gf, & pissing off my GF's family and screwing up their plans. Everyone gets pissed at everyone else because no one wants to compromise.

Retail establishments start putting Xmas shit out in August, and now Black Fridays are quickly becoming a Thanksgiving day event. People get absolutely stupid while driving, shopping and everything else.

I dunno.... I just had to say something to someone.

Thanks for letting me vent. Happy Holidays to you all.

 

X2

 

X3

Every one got mad at me and I just stayed hOme by myself and watched football
And some fam dropped off plates of food so it was kinda relaxing,

 

I cannot disagree with you about the skipping thanksgiving for shopping, the craphead grubbing action of shoppers & the thought by everyone that their schedule is most important and are unable to compromise being annoying as hell. Of course the family planning usually ends up being planners vs. spontaneous reactors a lot of the time but things still shouldn't have to be so chaotic.

 

Getting together with your in-laws and hating them is a long-revered holiday tradition.

Trampling innocent people to death in a rush to a sale priced television is an invention of modern Wal-Mart America.

Both are pretty horrid, yeah.

 

i agree...too much commercialism

 

This holiday shit ....... well it sucks, can't wait for it to be over.

 

You spend a lot of money and none of it is for you, I hate that lol

 

m withya brother. and I hate how the media pumps up the spending or lack of..WTF is this holiday supposed to be about? making sure walmart and macys make as much money as possible?

 

Most stores here close Thanksgiving day and Christmas, the only ones that stay open is Albertsons and even it is only open until 4 PM, and the c-store at Town Pump that stays open 24/7 year round. All you can get there is canned foods that have probably reached the sell by/exp date...I love small towns!

 

Man, I love December as much as you do!

 

completely agree. i turn in to the Grinch this time of year. I tend to just stay in my house unless I need to absolutely go somewhere because 98% of the time I end up getting pissed off at someone with the derp syndrome. All my co workers call me The Grinch at work... it fits my attitude. lol

 

I work.

Gotta love double time.

 

+unwanted hours/holiday pay?

 

Double time for Stat. Boo ya!

 

I love how everyone says the holidays are horrible, yet they still celebrate year after year. Must be a part of the human psyche.

I don't do holidays myself. Nothing but commercialism, and I refuse to support corporate greed.

 

I love the holidays. It's cheerful.


People just make it shitty cause their lives are shitty, and they drag all the rest of the shit into it.

 

I love it cuz snowmobiling season opens. I go riding. They can catch me on the trails. Makes it easier to get through the BS.

 

So you guys (and girls) tell me if I'm wrong....

A large part of my disdain for this time of year is all the family activity crap... I don't know about you but it's like trying to pack in four or five family events into a 24 hr period, and this year is no different.

My family dynamics:

· Mom- Tends to be the chaotic one of the family, lives with my youngest sister. Walked out on Dad about 10 yrs ago, divorced him four or five years later
· Dad- Lives with his girlfriend (slight age difference there ) and her 11 yr old son (weekends only), lives 12 blocks away from Mom.
· OlderSister - 31, married, flight attendant (husband also), wants a divorce, 2 daughters (2 in Feb & 5 in March), lives approx 20 miles (30 mins) NW of mom
· Younger Sister - 27 (end of Dec), moved back from NY at end of summer and moved in with mom

· Me- 33, lives with girlfriend (Megan, also 33), also typically stays at Dad's on weekends when my daughter (Ali, 10) comes over. GF's house is also about 20 miles (30 mins) south of mom

The dilema:

Younger sister wants to cook Xmas dinner at Mom's at a time where everyone in the family can attend, my girlfriend included.

The constraints:

· I have my daugther from Dec 16th until Xmas day at 2pm.
· Older sister works on Dec 24th & 25th until 4pm, and has Xmas dinner (for her husband's family) on the 26th.
· Dadis going with his gf to her family dinner on Xmas, approximately around 2pm.
· Megan's family tradition is to have extended family dinner Xmas Eve (this year to be at her house, time has not yet been finalized) and immediate family (mom, mom'spartner, brother, and brother & his gf) Xmas breakfast (starting around 5am, done around 10am), then her and her brothers head over to her dads for a few hours.

Though I've heard nothing of it so far (nothing new either since I'm usually the last to hear about it, so that doesn't mean it hasn't been set up or discussed yet), my Aunt usually has an Xmas Eve dinner at her house,but being that my younger sister is trying to get a dinner set up on Xmas Eve,I'm assuming that either my Aunt isn't doing her thing or my family just flat out isn't going.


The only other constraint was that I told Megan that I was not going to be travelling from one place to another on any of these days. I feel it adds too much chaos in an already chaotic day for my daughter.

My solution:

Xmas Eve:

Have Megan do a Xmas luncheon & gift exchange, say 1-5:30 on Xmas Eve, then goto my mom's for my sister's dinner at 7, family gift exchange afterwards. I would be staying the night at Megan’s with Ali.

Xmas Day:

Xmas day presents a solitary issue with Xmas breakfast at Megan's mom's.....seriously, WTF?? 5am on Xmas? There's nothing else planned that day save for taking my daughter home at 2pm. Is it really too much to ask that breakfast be at a normal time??

I told Megan that I would get up and do presents and stuff with her at (what I felt was) a more reasonable 7am, then over to her mom’s by 9am for breakfast followed by presents afterwards. Would likely then have to take Ali home, and we could then go hang out with her dad afterwards. I guess I’ve kinda shaft her dad when it comes to hanging out with Ali but he would have seen her on Xmas Eve at Megan’s family luncheon.

Dec 26th:

No real issue here. Older sister invited all of us to her house for her husband'sf amily dinner, but I don't really want to go up. Since there's no issue here, I'll likely decide that day if I'm going up or not (with Megan).


I really thought that since it's only every other year that I have my daughter on Xmas morning, that asking Megan's family to move their Xmas eve dinner to a luncheon and her mom's to 9am was a pretty minor inconvenience that would allow Megan the ability to (mostly) maintain her family's traditions while also allowing her to attend all the events with my family... well, just one event really.


So Megan sent a message out to her mom and dad with my solution for Xmas Eve, and apparently her mom was really upset about moving the Xmas Eve dinner to a luncheon. I had already gotten pissed about the whole ordeal b/c I've been texting, emailing, and calling my younger sister about getting a time set upfor the past week, and I sent an email to Megan's family saying that my family is making this whole ordeal out to being too complicated, declined the invites to their activities, and apologized for all the frustrations it may or not have caused. Perhaps I was premature in sending the email but I had enough at that point.

Then Megan reads the email (last night), gets pissed at me, goes upstairs lies face down on the bed in the dark, and basically ignores me for the evening. This morning, I get up to go to work, she gets out of bed at one point, and as I'm walking past her, I stop to give her a hug and tell her I love her, only to be pushed away and be told that I've "upset and embarrassed" her. I go about getting my stuff together and putting it out in the truck for work and the day, and I miss a phone call from her, then got a message saying "No goodbye and no answering my calls... really?" when I haven't even left yet. I go back inside and upstairs to say goodbye and get another load of from her about the whole ordeal, then she hugs me and says have a good day, but there really wasn't any emotion involved the process.


I guess my questions are:
1. Is my suggestion of asking Megan’s family to move their dinner to a lunch too much, knowing that next year’s (much like last year’s) activities will be much simpler being that I don’t get my daughter until 2pm on Xmas?
2. Am I unrightfully pissed at my older sister for her time constrictions? It seems to me that a very large portion of the problem revolves around her work schedule, which she could change it if she really felt like doing so.
3. Am I just completely off my rocker for all this?? Is this normal for families?