Well, Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. I look forward to this holiday for a few reasons. First and foremost, the food. I love gorging myself on all that Thanksgiving goodness! YUM! And it's always nice to see family and hear the funny stuff the kids say.
A few years ago, I offered to host/cook Thanksgiving dinner for my family. This includes my sibling, in-law, their kids, and my mom. I do everything. EVERYTHING. And I'm fine with that. But it is a lot of work. We always have a good time and the kids make everything great anyway. The day usually starts at noon...we eat around 1...and everyone leaves around 5. So, we're talking about 5 hours, people. 5. Hours.
Early last week, I sent an email to the family, asking about Thanksgiving and if we were doing it again this year - saying that I was happy to host/cook again. My mom and in-law wrote back right away, saying they were coming. The NEXT day, my sibling replied saying that they needed to discuss it and that they'd get back to me by the end of the week.
They didn't.
So, I followed up yesterday, to everyone. My sibling replied (only to me), "Hi, sorry about that. I will shoot you something before end of the week. Trying to decide, I am very stressed here at work and can’t decide if just chilling at home might be more relaxing! Thanks for offering to host."
Um, things are SO stressful for you that you can't imagine eating a FREE meal that you contribute NOTHING/NO WORK to and hanging out on the couch for 5 hours? Really?
I was thisclose to replying and saying, "Don't bother to come." Because, really, if you haven't been able to make this crucial decision in the last two weeks, I'm pretty sure you're not planning to come.
My in-law said they'd come with the kids, even if my sibling didn't. But, they've since responded that they'll do whatever my sibling does (which I understand). And this affects my mom, too...as she doesn't drive more than 15 miles and doesn't have a reliable car. So, if they don't come, no one comes. And even if it was just my mom coming, I'm not fricking going to all that work and cooking all of that food for TWO people.
I hate everyone.
Let me also say that my sibling sent a VERY detailed email about Christmas to the family this week. It detailed dates, how we're doing gifts, food, who is being picked up where, who is staying in what room, etc. So...Christmas is fricking 6+ weeks away and they're able to commit to all of that? But Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away and they just can't decide? Seriously?
So...here's what I'm looking at in the next 6 weeks. I'm looking at spending Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, AND Christmas Day ALONE. Yep. All by myself.
And again, it's no one's fault that I'm single and don't have any kids. I'm not saying that people need to make sure I've got somewhere to go. But I find it kind of cruel that family doesn't even think of that.
I'm not the perfect sibling, but I do so much for my nieces and nephews. I'm a very involved aunt. I show interest in my siblings' lives. In general, I think I'm pretty nice. And how do I get treated in return? Like total crap.
1 year ago
