Christmas is not what it used to be. Lost its way. All commercialized, hyped and shallow. Produces more stress, illness and suicide. A lot of people having trouble living up to expectations.

I do my best for my kids to make it special, but personally I am relieved when its over.

I am not religious, so there is no help for me either.

Today was a Holiday? From what? The misery and pain of having to listen to Mother rant on about what a worthless fk I am....after about 3 Vodka Tonics she threw the fking Turkey at me....but that was after I asked her to serve me a cup of coffee with some milk and sugar in it...I guess she heard that line once too often. I get no respect from my family, they just all plain hate me. They all think I am Psycho or something along those lines. While that opinion saddens me, I think about the Joey Brown line at the end of Some Like It Hot..."Nobodys Perfect"

BTW The Turkey was over done and the stuffing tasted like dog *****....so much for Mothers cooking...and now U know why I learned how to cook..

Anyway enough about the festivities with my family...I bought a bottle of Jamesons once...after a shot and a second one to confirm my opinion I used the stuff to clean my paint brushes...I find Knappogue Single Malt Irish to be much more pleasant on the pallet...

I used to hate Thanksgiving, etc because I had to go to Parents and in-laws where all the other guests had kids. Sitting in a cramped house with a bunch of people judging each other was difficult. Especially when presents were exchanged. We started staying home "to start our own family traditions" and for the last 25 years or so...they have been great. It is great to be the boss!....When my wife lets me.

I lost both of my parents 14 years ago. Brother is in the mid-west and retired, sisters in Tucson and busy with their brood (11 kids between the two of them!) and I have been overseas for the last 5 weeks.

Fell back in love with Christmas while living in Europe. Its really a different atmosphere there from America and it shows. Christmas markets on the weekends and lots of hot spiced wine and brats to eat. Still, as Marcus says, its getting commercialized (much more so in America than Europe though) and thats not what I feel it should be.

Its been the worst year for me in a long time, with several friends in accidents or cancer, and lost my job when our flight department closed in September. I am 52, and my copilot and flight attendent are 61 and they are having a rougher time finding work and a new future that I am.

As I look out the hotel that I am staying in here in the middle east and see the Indian and Pakistini laborers slaveing out in the field next door to us I thank God that I was born where I was, given a few breaks in life and work with my mind and not my back. "There but for the grace of God go I" comes to mind, and fairly often. They get one day off a week and unless the outside temps go above 125 in the afternoon, they work from sunup until sundown. Most if not all do this for 10-15 years then return home with their savings and buy a business and continue working.

I was just in India and the poverty there is simply unbelieveable. Most people from Western nations have no concept of what conditions they exist with. It shocked me and I have been in most countries already.

We have some to complain about but still, it could be a lot worse. We could be out there in the field next to the hotel, picking up rocks on the day after Thanksgiving, enjoying a lunch and dinner of some rice and small piece of chicken and being paid about $5 a day.

Thank God I live in the United States! Everything else, including my one wacky sister, can be worked with...

JoeA

I hear you, Joe.

Regularly I force myself to remind me of how "blessed" I am. Actually I don´t have to force it - I get it for free everyday at work. Today for example I tended to a young single mothers 1 year old child with severe brain damage and immunodeficiency. The mother, naturally, is a wreck. The father split.

In that perspective - whats there for me to wimp about ?!!

Marcus,

I used to work with "special" children when I was in college. They used to be called retarded. When things get difficult, or I have a problem I usually look back and think that I could have been born like that or worse.

Most of us do not have a real problem and are very lucky in life. We just do not realize it a lot of the time.

Sorry to hear that the Father is not in the picture in your situation. Hope that the Mother realizes that not all men are like that. It happened for a reason, hopefully for her to meet and stay with a better man in the future.

Joe A

My side of the family---all passed away. Wife has her entire family still around. Folks are in their 80's. We have them all over for t-day and cant get enough of the wonderful day. When you have no-one left, you really start to appreciate the little times you have with someone else's family, and to see the pleasure my wife has taking car of them on this day. I didnt have any Jameson, and I did run out of beer early, but well, there is always today. Wife went shoppping with my oldest daughter, I'll hang some christmas lites, have a turkey sandwich, and watch Nebraska on tv. Oh, and take the P-car out for a little drive. Yes life is good.

My family disintegrated during the holiday season back in 1980. Dad had an affair. Mom moved out the day after Christmas. Huge blow up around Easter when he spent the holiday with his mistress instead of us. Spent the next 15 years dreading the holiday season as it always involved a titanic battle between parents over who I ended up spending the holiday with...usually ended with me travelling hundreds of miles every year so I could try to spend each holy day with both...which never worked and I always got blamed by the "losing" parent for siding with the other. Finally eliminated those losers from my life and I can finally make it through November/December without any fighting, yelling crying etc. So I associate the holidays with mysery and pain. Nowadays, every year the holidays pass without some horrible incident is a blessing for which I am genuinely thankful (no irony or sarcasm implied).

Good choice! It is great to relax in your own chair, own bed, and watch what you want on TV. Just be careful to make it special and not let it turn into "just another day." I personally prefer guests ...or to vist at Thanksgiving to Christmas. At Christmas, the stress of shopping, getting and receiving gifts, etc just seems to make that a miserable time to be away from home. If I have to visit near Christmas, the week afterwards is best.

Bush hates that he wasn't invited! ;)

Randy

Lol! Good one.

I'm not ruling out an invitation-I have to think it over. Tell him I'll get back to him. ;)

Yep. Going through this, pre-emptively, about xmas with my folks.

To spice things up, wifey's parents have split up too. The last 3 years have seen absolute Holiday meltdowns with her mother. That's been taken care of this year... she hasen't been allowed in our house since the summer when she started pulling stunts, leading up to our wedding.

I really shouldn't be so hard on Mother...even though her Turkey leaves something to be desired she does make a killer Vodka Tonic...For her cooking is a chore to be performed like washing the clothes...and she has dutifully put the dinner on the table for Daddy for all these years...who has filled his plate and eaten what was there without complaint. So Mother even though you think less than well of me, I Love you...

The spirit of the season has graced the loving heart of even our man Tabs.

Bush is always invited at my house.

Hmm, that's funny...from your posts, I've always thought of you more as a Carter man.