These are the first holidays since dad brought his girlfriend home (he’s 47, she’s 24). My brother and I live with him. At this year’s Christmas meal besides the usual guests, mom and girlfriend’s parents were also present. Definitely an unusual situation but it was a nice event cause everybody was levelheaded.
Eh, kinda. We have been doing Chinese the last few years.
Just here at the house though.
Our tradition is to have Norwegian rice porridge for lunch on Christmas Eve. We add an almond to one bowl and the person who gets it opens the first gift.
My wife and I stayed with her parents for Christmas this year. We had a lovely day with them and her granddad. Her mum made an excellent Christmas dinner.
My mother in law doesn’t believe in germs or illness so she came over when she had the flu and now the entire house is sick. My wife’s got a high fever and I can’t breathe out of my nose. I’m exhausted with all the back-to-back dinners.
We’ve had a big family dinner full of high cholesterol low fibre food since a Monday and this won’t end until Jan 3 so I’m running on fucking fumes.
Sounds awful mate. My body is still digesting that awful traditional food too.
It was nice. We always do polenta on Christmas Eve and that’s fun. Started a new tradition with aebelskiver on Christmas morning. Grilled a beef rib roast for dinner. Was nice, just us and our adult kids. 2 of them left for awhile mid day to go to the in laws, which gave us a chance to clean up and prep dinner. Tiring but fun. I still have to even out everyone’s gift allowance - we have weird stuff going on this year with house repairs and limited space, so some wanted gifts and some wanted $ to spend when they’re less cramped on space.
We live out of town (8 hours away) so we visit for a week over Christmas every year. My in-laws live an hour away from my parents so we attempt to split the time as best as we can. We are not allowed to stay at my in-laws because we have a dog that isn’t friendly. My family is super understanding and has worked really hard to gain her trust. My in-laws refuse to do anything except talk bad about her and complain that we don’t visit enough. The worst this year has been that my sister’s (24) boyfriend just broke up with her like 3 weeks ago (by dropping off her belongings and blocking her) so she’s going through it. She had a perfectly fine time for a day or two, went out with us, would have conversations, but then started locking herself in her room (she still lives with my parents). But there’s been a few uncalled for moments in my opinion, breakup or not, like telling my mom “I had a list for a reason” while opening presents because my mom got her something else she might like (especially since her entire list was hunting and fishing stuff, activities she did with her ex). Also my two year old was sobbing outside her locked door, begging to see her, and was ignored. We always do a sibling activity together (go out to a fancy restaurant, escape room, axe throwing) and this year she was hot and cold with it. We would discuss doing something and she wouldn’t say anything but only text us later that she was never planning on going. Finally last night I went off on her a bit. Told her I never get to see her and I wanted to go out and to spend some time with her. That I’m sorry she was having a shitty time but it wasn’t my fault. I’ve never had a great time visiting for holidays but I’ve never been more excited to go home that I am this year.
