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Journal SolemnDragon's Journal: It's never too early to start planning the freaking holidays 17

Journal by SolemnDragon

My mum called last night. Among other things, she's about to move again, some 5 hours' drive away, and wanted to know what i plan to do about thanksgiving.

No, i mean she's moving, as in she just decided to, and is just about to. Immediately.

Me: .... (jaw hanging open)

Mind you, as she only decided to move over the past few weeks, there wasn't much advance planning involved.It's something she's wanted to do for awhile, and so now she's going to.

  My mum, who reads this blogstyle pile of blithering (that i like to call prose) only from remote time to time, will nonetheless not be surprised to learn that the resulting sudden discussion of the holidays produces no small bit of stress in me.

that said, there we are.

Me: Mum...i...

Mum: Will you come visit for thanksgiving?

Me: ...

Mum: You will, won't you? You could take the train.

Me: If we do anything, we'll drive.

(among others, pancho is included among my holiday plans, because they're fun with him along. Also this year, blinder is invited, and trmj, with his girl if he has one, so i may be holding a thanksgiving for boston friends instead of attending a family thing. I would not be tyring to drag them all the way to vermont. I will cook and said friends may help if they attend. The goal is a cheerful, stress-free holiday, for those of us who don't have nearby peaceful family to visit.)

mum: that works! you could drive up! That's great!

Me: ...i might be holding thanksgiving for other people this year.

Mum: (brightly) oh, maybe i'll just have to visit you, instead!

Me: ...

Gah!

It's august. I have yet to plan anything for my birthday, let alone thanksgiving. I have not planned my days of the dead dinner, which will be before thanksgiving. It is not my fault that my mum chose *now!!!!* to suddenly move to another state. (This is hardly a rarity in her life; i'm thrilled to have lived in Boston again for several years now.)

So, yeah. I don't know what i'm doing for thanksgiving. It will probably involve vegetarian cooking and my friends. At this rate, it might involve concrete bunkers and peacekeeping forces.

How about you? Are you facing this already? How do you tackle the thorny issue of family custody of the holidays? and if it's not thorny, well, i'm happy for you. And might steal your holiday to give to the abovementioned friends, who undoubtedly deserve more respite from holiday pressure than anyone gets as that time of year approaches. (One thing which i always offer is that there need be no fuss. Food, calm, company, no pressure.)

i will probably be providing more details as time goes by and the season approaches for real.

*sigh*

Smoochy, can i come sit in the family special corner?

s

This discussion was created by SolemnDragon (593956) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

It's never too early to start planning the freaking holidays More

It's never too early to start planning the freaking holidays

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    • How about you? Are you facing this already? How do you tackle the thorny issue of family custody of the holidays?

    Thanksgiving is always preplanned in my family, my brothers take turns hosting the whole family on the weekend before Thanksgiving, and we all get together there. We treat it as a big pot-luck type of deal, although we have planned ahead what to bring. While there, we figure out who gets it the following year. As for Christmas, we frequently drive to the midwest to be with my mother-in-law.

  • which involves my family and Steve Who Shot Himself (since his fam lives in KY). My brother used to disappear for most of the meals, going instead to the festivities of his girlfriend, until the worthless cunt shed him after he helped her get into the airline bidness.

    It's the rare time of the year I get to see my family. It's been that way for the last eight years. So I always give them the 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (with Steve showing up for all of those. Andy in Alabama showed up for the 4th th
  • 'Problem' for my family is christmas. My two brother ( married ), my mom and I live in completely different states if not regions. My mom likes to spend christmas with as many of us as possible, but it's hard to juggle sometimes and since her job is pretty horrible on holidays and vacations she needs to know far far in advanced where my brothers usually don't think about it till a month or two before.
  • Thanksgiving and Christmas with the parents across the water (only 30 to 45 min away), 4th of July the last few years have been with Bodak and his parents since my parents really don't do much on that holiday. That is pretty much about it.

    Things end a bit different if we head back to Illinois to visit the horde (which consists of my dad's 8 brothers and sisters and their families, and my mom's 7 brothers and sisters and their families, of only which 3 of those 15 do not live back in Illinois). This Octobe
  • (. . .so i may be holding a thanksgiving for boston friends instead of attending a family thing. I would not be tyring to drag them all the way to vermont. I will cook and said friends may help if they attend. The goal is a cheerful, stress-free holiday, for those of us who don't have nearby peaceful family to visit.)

    For the last couple of years, the "chosen family" is present for our thanksgiving gathering. We have a wonderful time telling stories, possibly playing games. Definately low key.

    My family

    • For the last couple of years, the "chosen family" is present for our thanksgiving gathering. We have a wonderful time telling stories, possibly playing games. Definately low key.

      I second this. Of course the fact that a chunk of my family moved to Arizona (and now Texas) kinda puts a damper on many wonderful family gatherings. [sarcasm alert][sarcasm alert]

      The other side of my family does Thanksgiving over at some distant relatives place. When I used to go to that it was always very boring. They unders

  • Holidays (Score:2)

    by Tet ( 2721 )
    How do you tackle the thorny issue of family custody of the holidays?

    It wsa tricky for ages, as my grandparents used to live abroad. We all used to have to go over for Christmas each year, and it was a big deal. I'm fine about being with my family, but it's nice to have a break sometimes, and being trapped in a foreign country isn't conduicive to that. It resulted in a lot of stress, particularly for my other third.

    Since my grandad died, though, everyone's back in the UK, and things are a lot easier now

  • Thanksgiving is kind of fun. Low-key, and wierdness is acceptable. Normal dishes (like turkey and ham) and lots of random non-traditional things too (like green jello salad, mac'n'cheese, and scalped potatoes).

    Xmas however can be drama filled. Between my brother always causing drama, and me avoiding it like the plague (thus avoiding him), it becomes a bit of a circus. I'd much rather spend this holiday with friends than with family.
  • Tofurkey [tofurky.com].

    I'm not exactly sure of its kosherness with your particular needs dear, but I am sure that its vegetarian. I believe David and I have spoke of it at great legnth before.
  • Are you healthy enough to make that trip in a single day? It would be a challenge for me to accomplish it. I haven't been to to the homes of my in-laws for two years because they live 12 hours away and I can't handle the drive unless I split it up over two days at the very least.

    My side of the family got complicated the past two years. My stepbrother got married in 2003 and my sister got married a few weeks ago, so there's lots of competition for who's gonna spend time with whom and when. I made a rule afte
  • Heh, I'm trying not to kill anyone in the next five hours. I'm not promising anything about the next five months.
  • Go on a cruise or trip somewhere during the holidays. "Sorry mum, Carnival said Vermont is not in the Bahamas, so we can't get them to detour."
  • With my fiance and I we have simply decided that we'll celebrate holidays over several days. Thanksgiving day is spent with one set of parents and the other set is the next day. Come Christmas, we usually will go to one set on the 24th and the other on the 25th. We rotate it so that each set gets one holiday on the actualy day, and we change which set gets which day each year. Of course, since we want to be with friends also, we usually plan an all night bender for the next available weekend following t

  • We decided that we want all of my side of the family at our house for Christmas (save "dad" of course). Mom, Jeff and Sarah (Jeff's gf -- if she can make it), Buck & Jen (Buck's wife), Matt, and Travis.

    We made sure to try to start making plans at the wedding, because it'll be tons of fun. :)
  • other things, she's about to move again, some 5 hours' drive away

    I haven't been keeping my scorecard up-to-date. Is that closer or farther?

    Thanksgiving isn't as big a deal in Canada as in the US. We'll spend it with somebody or other and somebody else the next year. Nobody gets bent out of shape because you're not there for thanksgiving.

    Christmas -- sometime in the second half of December we have the Christmas gathering with my family and sometimes in that period we have a Christmas gathering with my wife's

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