It Ain’t Over ‘Til …

insert your own smart@$$ ending as you will.

Christmas was lovely, but i wish it could have ended on Christmas Evening like it should have. 

we went to my dad’s sister’s house on Christmas Eve; the food was wonderful, everyone was in a good mood, which was impressive.  we sat down and exchanged gifts with everyone except my dad’s other sister’s family – not because they weren’t there, but because it’s been a forever-long tradition that we exchange gifts with them on new year’s eve.  well, the plan was for friday, which was fine, although slightly silly and complicated because J doesn’t get out of work til 8:30 pm, and they’re coming down here on friday, but then everyone is going back to their house for new year’s.  like i said – complicated.

then, Christmas Day, we opened presents in the morning (J got me a new rice cooker!!  the one we’ve been using was my mom’s before she got HER new one, and i swear the thing is almost as old as i am, if not older.) then went to my mom’s mom’s house for Christmas dinner.   beforehand, i had been informed that we were not going to exchange presents with my mom’s sister and her kids either.  i assumed that it was because my aunt (divorced) did not have the girls for Christmas this year, and so grudgingly agreed to go over on wednesday (today) as well as friday.  we got to grandmas and found out that my aunt had her girls after all – everyone was there, and we were still going to have a separate exchange.  needless to say, i was a little peeved.  i gave my grandma her present anyway, because no one had mentioned that we weren’t to exchange presents with her and grandpa either, and at that point i just didn’t care.  my aunt left rather abruptly a little while after dinner, citing the fact that she hadn’t yet had Christmas with the girls.  there seemed to be another bug that had crawled somewhere uncomfortable, but then, if she doesn’t have some sort of bug in residence, one has to look up to make sure the pigs haven’t started flying.

later, as we were getting ready to leave, J and i were asked over and over if we were going to be at my mom’s the next day – i waffled around, not wanting to commit to going, but not feeling as though i had any choice.  eventually my mom stepped in and said she didn’t like the exhausted look on my face, and she’d call me tuesday when i wasn’t so tired so we could talk it over.

well, unfortunatly no surprise, she never did call.  so, i guess we have no choice now but to make an appearance, although i’ll be damned if i go early, before j gets home from work.  they live 10 minutes away from my mom’s – if they can’t stay up a little late when it’s not a school night, that’s their problem.  my aunt will be in a snit of course, but what am i to do?  like my mom said before we left for my grandma’s that day, "if you go through life trying to avoid pissing her off, you’ll never get anything done."

sad but true …