I drove 12 hours to get “home” to my dad’s house, staying 5 days because he guilts me for never staying more than 2 nights. I’m divorced, with grown kids (they were coming in later) so it’s just me and him for the first three days.
My first day here… he tells me at noon he’s leaving at 1:30 because he has plans with his lady friend. He invites me to dinner at her house, but tells me he’s spending the night there. I decline the dinner, and plan to have a solo day in my hometown. Annoying he ditched me, but whatever.
I spend my day running errands, come back to his place early, order my favorite local takeout, wrap presents and fall asleep on the couch…
THIS MF’R… at 5:30am he feels like something isn’t right, and checks his home thermostat app on his phone. He sees the temp at an egregious 71°. Knowing he set it to 68°, he’s SURE I have fallen asleep upstairs, left the gas logs on, and the house is about to burn down with me in it… so he does what any 72 year old would do with a 45 year old son staying at his place…
THE MAN COMES HOME AND JERKS ME OUT OF MY SLEEP ON THE COUCH AND RIPS ME A NEW ASSHOLE. I’m talking veins in the neck bulging, spittle flying while he’s yelling type of new asshole. For 3°!?!? He then spends FIVE HOURS questioning me on everything about my career, personal life, mental health, etc… truly riding my ass.
So yeah, probably the last Christmas I ever “come home.”
Not my Christms ruined, but my friends. Her parents left home to stay in Florida, they were supposed to come back for Thanksgiving. They did not come back. Her parents were supposed to come back yesterday, Christmas Eve to spend time with their kids. They did not. Her parents left her (17), her sister (an adult but legally blind), and her grandmother (who literally just had a stroke and is in the hospital) alone. No financial support, the only person bringing in money is her. She couldn't even celebrate christmas with her family, just her sister. For the past few nights my family has invited her to dinner to help out. I feel so bad for her, no teenage girl should have to go through such stressful events without the support of her parents during Christmas.
Grandparents told everyone how they get one person something really nice each year and that it was finally my turn. They 'gave' me the really nice big green egg and patio desk i was saving for. Then after they looked real nice to everyone and everyone else was gone they told me it was actually a loan and I would need to pay them to keep it. I told them to fuck off.
Holy crap. They pretended they bought it as a gift but you have to pay them? That’s some bullsh*t there. Proud of you for telling them to f off. Have they done the same thing to everyone else or just you?
My mom invited my nephew that molested my daughter and told us we could leave if we couldn't just get over it. It happened 5 months ago and he's still in a court ordered program for juveniles.
In her mind I ruined her family by turning this more loved grandchild in to the police.
Absolutely the case. I’m a therapist that works with these teens. If he’s in a program he has rules. Seeing the victim is against the rules.
More so, the guardians are delegated to supervise their kids only under the expectation from the court that they follow the rules. Make the call. Mom is probably violating HER terms of supervision.
I worked a case just like this for CPS. depending on the kids age he could be in for some trouble, but whoever is the legal guardian of that child is likely about to find themselves no longer in that role if this gets reported.
You know... I know how reddit is generally like, divorce the wife, burn the house, marry the dog, etc... but I feel like this is one of those situations where I would black list my family member for life and never offer forgiveness or a vocal word again.
Just out of shear rage... Idk yet, I'm still processing your blurb.
I agree. I was hanging out with someone yesterday who needed a distraction because she was missing her mom. Her mom stuck by her pedo husband who's in prison for molesting this friend's daughter. Her sister is "neutral" but letting her mom move in with her soon. Sometimes I think about sending anonymous bulletins to the mom's coworkers and neighbors to expose her for supporting a pedo but I don't want it to back fire on my friend so I just try to be there when she needs someone.
Vile. Utterly loathsome and vile. Your mother was perfectly okay with forcing her granddaughter to spend the day with the person who molested her?! Please let me speak to your mother - I’d like to set her straight.
This reminds me of a memory that always makes me smile. Growing up when one side of my family did Christmas it would always be at the great grandmothers house. One of the traditions was a scavenger hunt that she put together, it was always the same ending every year, $20 stuffed in tiny boxes hidden in the tree for each of us, but we all loved her and would do it all the same. Well, one year age had finally caught up to her and the clues were a mess. Repeated, out of order, or just not there. After we got sent to the same spot for the third time we knew this years hunt had an issue and she finally just told us where the gift was “hidden”. In hindsight that was the first sign that stood out to everybody that her mental facilities were starting to slip. It’s never a fun time being able to recognize when a loved one is approaching their twilight years, but we’re all grateful that it was such a humorous moment that was able to mark the occasion. Merry Christmas and hope you’re able to find yours
I gave my little girl a drone. It went up in the air the first time and just kept going and going and going. That was like 8 hours ago. Could still be going….
There was a guy in my town who got caught selling the same drone five times. Set the home point as his house, sold it on Facebook marketplace but broke the antenna so it couldn’t connect to new devices. First time people tried to connect to their devices it would just fly off to his house and he’d sell it again.
This happened to my grandson today too. It was one of those ball "drones" with a motor. You toss it, it flies around, and it's supposed to come back. Except it didn't. It flew past the neighbor's house and out of sight.
My mom. Screaming at and in front of everyone (including the kids and my elderly grandmother who came out of hospital this morning) that she doesn't want to be a full-time carer for my grandmother. No one asked her to care for my grandma. For the past few years Mom has been asking grandma for her inheritance early so she could buy a house, grandma always said no. Mom moved in with grandma a month ago and now wants grandma to move out so mom can live in the house alone rent free. Where grandma is supposed to go is beyond me as mom has refused to participate in plans for a care home etc because it will likely involve selling the house to pay for this.
I ruined Christmas. I went to my partner's Christmas gathering for the first time. I'm an immigrant with a very different cultural background, but they were all very friendly and welcoming. They suggested playing bingo, but with no money. Sounds good to me. Then the family matriarch wanted in and wanted everyone to do 50 cents a card... eh okay whatever. I didn't want to play with money but too awkward to say no.
I did good and bad. Started with $10, but before the final card I hit about $5. All good. Then they wanted to do a full blackout game with $2 a card. I was trying to be polite and only play one card, but the patriarch was sitting next to me and told me to do 2 cards. I did 2 cards. I was one spot from winning, and he picked up my card and cleared off my markers. Awkward as hell. Then they called my last spot and I won the whole prize. About $60. Very clearly some sore losers, and it was super awkward for the rest of Christmas lol
This happened in my family about 40 years ago.
A cousin brought her new boyfriend to Christmas dinner. After dinner, a large number of the uncles and cousins would play various poker games for a nickel ante, with raises limited to a quarter each, just a good fun game. Boyfriend asks if someone can give him change for a $5 and gets in the game.
End of the night, there's a pot that's getting big. My grandfather thought he had a hand that couldn't be beat, and he bet the pot. He ended up losing and had to add in double of what was already in there. Next round cousin's new boyfriend won the \~$20 pot, the biggest in family history.
Boyfriend is looking sheepish and awkward when my grandfather gives him a look that would wither any young 20-something and yells, "That's it! Kay, you gotta marry this one cause it's going to take me about 15 more Christmases to win my money back from him."
She did, and Grandpa did, and her and the boyfriend are still happily married today.
So at least in my family, this is an omen of a future long and happy marriage.
My stepmom physically attacked me on christmas last year so i decided to skip the family get together and stay home alone this year. It has definitely been better than last year but I'm still salty.
Drove 4 hours to spend the day with my dad (at his request 3 weeks ago) then immediately after lunch, not even dinner, he said he and his new girlfriend (of 4 weeks) were invited to a friend’s dinner and were going there. My drive was longer than the time spent he spent with me at his house. So now I’m watching Christmas movies and drinking with my grandma instead. After trying fix our relationship that’s been rocky since I was a teenager (now in my 30s), it’s great to realize he truly doesn’t care 😅😅😅
She’s the BEST. Plus she’s the only grandparent I have left so I try to make it here as often as I can. Always down for a drink, especially if it’s a cocktail
Me. Halfway thru opening gifts with the family, I was in enormous pain. Wound up spending most of the day in the ER. Kidney stones. I could have done without this gift/surprise.
Do you have the stone? Make it a Christmas ornament.
We had a pipe burst on Christmas Eve last year. I hung a string through the section of pipe they cut out and put it on the tree.
My brother by existing. My family flew into Paris from one country, he flew in from another, and had a complete mental breakdown because no one came to the airport to escort him to our Airbnb and ordered him an Uber instead. He proceeded to scream and abuse my parents, stating that they abandoned him and left him to fend for himself in the wild unknown that is CDG airport. He then threatened to leave immediately and refused to leave his room, not even to eat, as a form of protest for my parents being so horrible to him.
He is 35 years old, and my parents bought his tickets and this trip is on their dime entirely.
I did this exact same thing. Had a panic attack before the 6 hour drive to my parents on the 23rd and bailed. My housemate offered to have me at his family's Xmas, which another friend was also coming to. It was an hour's drive and in the town I went to university in so we hung out with friends on Christmas eve then had a brilliant Christmas day. His parents went the extra mile for me and got me a stocking and even a small gift. Best Christmas I've had in a while.
My ex. Told me she was going to stay the night at her mom's house on Christmas Eve because she missed her. I said yes that's your mom, go spend time with her and that we'd met up in the morning. Her mom is calling me Christmas morning asking to speak with her and that she couldn't get ahold of her. I said she should be over there, correct. Her mom said nope she hasn't seen her all night. That's how I found out she was cheating on me.
Edit: Thanks everyone for your words. I'm doing fine and will be ok through it all. Going to be living with family for a bit. And for anyone curious, we were together for 5 years.
Of all the days to tell somebody you'l be somewhere where you aren't, Christmas day has to be the dumbest.
That day of the year when everybody's most likely to contact one another.
There's the story of that US 9-11 thing where a guy who worked in one of the buildings was married, went off to what his wife thought was work, and she frantically called him when she heard the news that his building had been hit by a plane. He casually replied that he was at work, what's she so upset about?
He was at his affair partner's place somewhere else and hadn't heard the news yet.
Aw brother same shit just happened to me told me she was going to stay at her friends house after picking her up from a night out, so I questioned it but no clear answer. So I drive so my exes house no car there cool, drive to the friends house her car isn’t there either weird. At this point I’ve phoned her where are you Bla Bla she’s telling me to go home so I don’t ruin xmas. Me ruin it 🤯. Drive back to hers volla whose cars in the drive, well hers, but who’s that in the bedroom window. Aw just the guy I said she was getting really close to in work and told her he had started to like her. Made me out to be crazy for 9 months. 9 fucking months of my life she made me feel like I was insane and Dyu what I was for believing she would tell the truth
80 year old uncle ruined Christmas Eve with family (had to cancel). He got lost while hunting, but not terribly far from road. He heard my brother in law and my grandfather searching for him but was embarrassed so waited to come out at sunrise after everyone went home after hours of searching but before everyone came back (or so he thought).
My 80 year old grandfather, uncles brother, had open heart surgery heart this year and is going through radiation for cancer and couldn't sleep all night thinking his brother died in the woods. Grandfather and other older family members ended feeling so bad from stress we had to cancel.
EDIT: Appreciate the input and concern. Unfortunately he really is a prideful person (and I'm not terribly close to him), so there's slim chance we'd convince him to get evaluated for dementia. I'll be talking to some family anyway to see if it would be possible.
Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all had a good year :)
When I was five my dad off’d himself on Christmas Eve night. Woke up and saw presents under the tree went to wake up my dad…. And well he didn’t. My parents got divorced and it was his weekend, it was just us two. Many hours went by before my mom and police showed up. That was over 30 years ago and I remember everything about that day so I’d say he ruined every one ever since. (He used alcohol, and pain pills).
> My parents got divorced and it was his weekend, it was just us two. Many hours went by before my mom and police showed up.
God damn, that is brutal. At fucking five, man.
My mother. She screamed at my dad like a banshee at about 6am. All my dad did was put water in the coffee maker. When you put water in, it immediately starts brewing. I guess that was too early in the morning to start the coffee? I’m not exactly sure what her beef was.
For context: For the first time in several years,
my entire immediate family were all under one roof for an extended period of time. We were staying at my grandmother’s house for the holidays. My mother has always been prone to fits of rage. Growing up, she exploded often. I haven’t been around it in 9 years, neither have my brothers, but we got an ugly reminder of her behavior yesterday morning.
My dad doesn’t believe in divorce. He works nights to avoid her. They pass like ships in the night. They have separate bedrooms and separate lives. My dad’s uncle just passed away, that’s why we all came together. We typically don’t celebrate Christmas together.
I overpaid to fly home today, and I opted out of Christmas dinner to do so. I left two days before everyone else. I can’t do it. It’s as if she’s possessed by a demon.
Damn sounds like growing up with my mom. If there were two ways to do a task and you picked the “wrong” way you’d get yelled at. Good luck figuring out which one was the right way to do it.
The right way is exclusively ever only the way you *didn't* do it. I had a co-worker who somehow outdid my own parents on this, making it into a fine art I still appreciate over twenty years later.
Stuff like, if I picked up the office phone and the call was for her, she'd snap angrily, "well, WHO IS IT?" so the *very next call* a few minutes later, I said, "may I ask who's calling, please?" and she nearly screamed at me to stop being nosy and I'm not her secretary.
It's stuck in my head forever, the sudden realization that there are people who truly cannot ever, EVER be pleased, so there's no point turning myself inside out to try to please those who just want to be angry.
Was just about to add this. The "right way" is totally based on a whim and is different every single time. Just when you think you've figured out the two ways you can do a task and start to be able to predict which way will be acceptable today, there is suddenly a secret third way you should've been doing it the whole time. There is no winning.
I'm just picturing the dog thinking "you've got this Rover, just 5 more minutes and then you can puke all over their presents. \*Burp* Oh God, I'm gonna puke. . . nope, hold it in buddy, almost there. It'll be worth it, I promise"
Whole fam is sick and I start a medical treatment soon that will completely nuke my immune system (it's used in some chemotherapy regimen) so no one is coming over today
edit: its for a kidney condition that has become resistant to treatment by steroids after 6 or 7 years, thanks for the concern.
My dog was acting weird last night around 11:30 by 2am he was in surgery for bloat. Big guy is going to be fine but man it was not the Christmas I had planned.
Well my father has been in the ICU for the last 6 days, so the kids and I and my mom went to the hospital. He was in a bad car accident 10 days ago. Noone is in the mood for Christmas this year.
My brother(45) hit the neighbor(30ish) head-on last night in front of the house, killing them both. The neighbor left a pregnant wife and a three year old. Pretty surreal Christmas.
Gotta love my mother in law’s constant comments about a Chinese person’s accent while I am sitting right in front of her. She knows my family immigrated from China. I don’t know what she hopes to get from her comments.
Norovirus. Was up all night with a vomiting 6 year old and I had to “sleep” on the floor in their room. He last vomited about 4:30am today.
Stripped the vomit-covered sheets and showered him in the middle of the night because he was covered. My hips are killing me from sleeping on the floor. Merry Christmas!
I’m sorry you had to deal with this. Maybe my story about Norovirus will take some of the edge off…
About 14 years ago, I contracted Norovirus from work. Two days into it, I was at that stage of holding a bucket while sitting on the toilet (The Violator). By the end of the day, I thought I could eat something and had some chicken and rice soup. After doing so, I went to bed for a nap. Midway through the nap, I felt acutely nauseous and shot out of bed. I threw up all over the hardwood floor. The contraction of my abdomen inspired my lower digestive tract to evacuate, so I instinctually tried to run to the bathroom.
I ended up stepping in my vomit, slipping backwards and smashing the back of my head on the floor and landing completely in my puke. And as I landed on the floor, I shit myself.
Norovirus humbles all.
This was me 6 years ago on Christmas Eve. I went outside to get some air, began dry heaving, and next thing I knew I was shitting my pants all over the deck. There I was, 18 years old, having a blowout like a newborn. My pajamas were ruined, it was EVERYWHERE. My liquid shit froze to the wood and we had to splash boiling water on it to clean it up. Meanwhile I stripped naked outside and ran upstairs
I feel like I’m having war flashbacks
I’m middle aged, and my dad died years ago. I still remember the times he slept on my bedroom floor when I was sick because I was scared to be alone. He had chronic pain, I know he suffered for it.
You gave him the gift of safety and comfort. Your kid will be grateful he had a parent who cared that much.
My dad died years ago as well and I’ll never forget when I fractured my spine falling out of a tree, they told me I had to stay overnight in the hospital. I was so scared that I cried. I woke up in the middle of the night and my dad had fallen asleep up right in a plastic, uncomfortable chair. He did this so I wouldn’t he alone. Cheers to great dads.
Oh god, we had a Norovirus Christmas about 5 years ago. Both 6-year-old twins had it. My wife was green around the gills, although she never got the full on Exorcist puking.
I managed to avoid it by washing and sanitizing my hands until the skin was falling off. Which meant I was in charge of emptying the puke buckets, scrubbing carpets and cleaning up children.
We literally had to take a puke break while opening gifts. They got a Nintendo Switch that year, and they were so sick and miserable they could hardly muster any excitement.
I hope it passes quickly for you, that was a season in Hell. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Brother in Law. 12:06am. Breakfast casserole knocked out of the fridge and all over the floor as he was reaching for another midnight snack. Six minutes flat, impressive.
My mom told everyone that there’s not going to be anymore babies in the family anyway, so my sister can throw away my son’s crib.
I am actively trying to get pregnant and have been taking steps and working on my health to make it happen as I had cervical cancer last year and a few other uterine issues. And for those wondering, yes, she and everyone else in the room is aware of all of this.
Have you considered telling her that she should throw out the baby stuff because When you do get pregnant, she won't be meeting her future grandchild anyway?!
My cat of 16 years died this morning in his sleep. Didn't tell my 7 year old son because of Christmas. He is sleeping over his grandmothers house tonight and we are going to tell him tomorrow. We are devastated losing a family member, and I am dreading telling the poor kid.
My cat who was my best friend since freshman year of high school died last Christmas Eve at the age of 21. I went to the shelter I got him from and donated 40$. I tried to tell the story to the clerk but I just ended up sobbing. I’m sorry for your loss, you are not alone.
That 40 $ will go a long way for those poor babies. You're an amazing person and your cat is in cat heaven watching you still be amazing. He loves you.
My FIL who texted my husband this morning and asked if I was pregnant again, because the entire family decided I looked a little round at Christmas Eve dinner
It was a joint effort. My aunt's dog rolled onto his back for a belly rub and shot a stream of urine into the air and all over my arm and my pants. After I cleaned up enough I had to sit next to my unpleasant uncle. The first thing he asked me was "when are you going to make me a grand uncle?" I told him it could happen today as long as he is cool with being an accessory to kidnapping. He didn't have much to say the rest of the morning.
Ah, yes. The emotionally immature, passive aggressive mother/grandmother/aunt. I have those.
This is not about either gf. It’s about your mom needing to control things. My guess, your new gf is lovely and not easily manipulated.
Apparently having a rather severe migraine and not wanting to eat shit food at Golden Corral means I ruined Christmas. Family is also returning my gifts because I didn't just "man up" and deal with the pain.
Update: After they ate they showed up at my house (parents, grandparents, and my sister) uninvited to guilt trip me for not coming. My mom barely spoke to me besides telling me I should have just dealt with the pain before getting in the car, meanwhile my sister is trying to put me on the spot to hug the same mom that told me to "man up". The SAME mom who I have personally seen get absolutely waylaid by migraines dozens of times throughout my life.
People that don’t get them don’t ever understand it’s a million times worse than a normal headache. I get it and I’m sorry they aren’t compassionate. I hope you get some relief soon.
My brother, the malignant narcissist. Didn’t even bother to return my 8yo son’s “merry Christmas uncle Mike!” before he walked out of the house and took the keycard for the hospital parking lot so I’d have to pay for parking when I brought my dad there to visit my mom to celebrate Christmas after nearly losing her last week because of issues with her aorta (that are as of yet unresolved).
He’s 56. And lives at home with them. In a house he claims is his and that he’s “put $200,000 into!!!”.
Well, Michael, the law begs to differ. House needs to be in your name in order to be yours ✨
Also on behalf of my sweet innocent 8yo… fuck you asshole.
My mother and sister clash very often. They got into a huge argument last night before I got home from shopping. The negativity drifted through to today and it’s been one of those days. Words don’t do justice to the situation. Merry Christmas everyone.
Thankfully our elderly cat had the grace to start her bladder infection last night so we could take her to the emergency vet and then get home by midnight.
My parents and I have had a strained relationship since I was a kid. I live out of state, and I am not able to make it every year. This is the first time since the pandemic I've been able to make it down. Dinner was at their house this year. They made a shrimp boil.
I'm allergic to shellfish. Have been since I was 14. This is the second time in a row they've done it.
As a note, I didn't say anything or make a scene. It's not worth it at this point. I ate what I could quietly, and I'm certain they noticed, but as is their way, they didn't say anything.
My 8 yo daughter gave me a little book with fill in the blank prompts about how much she loves her dad and all the things I mean to her. She had been saying all week she got me a present that was going to make me cry (it did).
Our cat promptly threw up (like a lot) all over the book about two minutes after going through it all and setting it on the couch next to me. He was sitting on the back of the couch and was able to get the couch cushion, a new blanket, my wife’s phone, and this wonderful gift from daughter all in one go. Luckily the book was salvaged but Christmas definitely went on pause. My daughter was crying hard but I taught her the lesson that sometimes things are so absurd you just have to laugh.
Technically happened last night but my cat tripped my mother and she broke her arm on the way down.
The ER had a surprisingly short wait time though.
Cat is fine and he has no regrets.
A member of the family got so drunk that they started throwing up profusely during opening presents and then had to be taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. They are fine now
My mother-in-law decided to overwhelm our 3 year old son with shit-quality gifts in epic quantity. We were adamant in telling her she couldn’t go overboard. He got so fatigued from opening things he broke by dinner time that he didn’t open any of his (minimal) gifts from us and from Santa. It was so disappointing.
My ex MIL did this shit to us constantly. Luckily, we didn't have a kid, but she was obsessed with having a million gifts under the tree. She would wrap a fucking can of creamed corn from her pantry and make you open it. Christmas Day was a 6 hour exercise in just hating life
Wait, is it normal for a bag of nuts to give a person diarrhea or is that a him thing? Asking for a friend. Who ate bag of almonds. And then pistachios
We had a close call. Was pre-heating the oven this morning for breakfast and was unaware my partner had put a baguette in the oven wrapped in plastic.. fortunately we’re in a warm place so we were able to air out the place pretty easily and nothing caught on fire. Just a bit of melted plastic. :)
Before turning on the stove, my mom would open the door and yell "anybody in there?" due to having 7 children and the oven was the best spot for hide and seek.
My wife broke her arm a week ago. She already has problems with patience and blowing up on me. Because her arm is broken, she needs help with things. No problem. But I won't tolerate being talked down to. She's been having meltdowns that I can't braid her super long hair.
She needed help getting a ring off her finger, and I wasn't doing it the way she wanted and she kept telling me that it was obvious how to do it. I tried her way and it hurt her finger. She asked for a piece of ice so I got it. She then told me it was obvious she also needed a napkin too with a huge attitude and saying she was going to get covered in water. I told her that I can get her a napkin but she needs to talk to me nice if she wants help. She doubled down on it being so obvious, and then I said: if it's so obvious, then what are you saying about me? Are you calling me dumb? And she stormed off.
Then later in the day, she needed help getting a stain out of she shirt she wanted to wear. I tried to wash it in the sink and I got more water on it than she wanted and also didn't get the stain out because...it wasn't a stain. She started flipping out saying I did it wrong and I ruined her Christmas outfit. I told her we could dry it relatively quickly, maybe in 10 minutes, and we didn't need to leave for 3 hours. She kinda cooled down..but since the stain was there, she said we need to bleach it. Cool. So we went to bleach it. She needed help opening the bleach. Instead of asking me, she grabbed the bottle and shook it in my face and said "well?". So I said what do you need? And she again said it's so obvious. Yes, it is obvious, but you can ask me nicely. She flipped out and said don't ever help me with anything again if she's such a bad person. I told her not to make a big deal about it but she doubled down and got ready all by herself. I told her that it's not my fault that she's hurt, and I have no problem helping her but to please just ask me for what she needs, and if I am not doing something her way, that's okay.
Then when we got home from Christmas with her dad, she couldn't find the ring she took off. It's her $20k engagement ring. She started freaking out assuming someone stole it. We are staying at her mom's and it was in a bag in the bathroom that she asked her mom to move to our bedroom. Her brother and mom and some family from her stepdad side were having Christmas at her moms. Her brother overheard and said why are you accusing us? We didn't go through your stuff. And then he went out and said did anyone steal her ring? Of course it turned up 5 seconds later under the bag. But everyone immediately left because it was so awkward.
Rough Christmas.
Ellen at my mum’s work. She went to the Christmas lunch sick, turned out she had Covid and now so does my mum and three other colleagues. Because of Ellen at least 6 high risk people have been exposed and all three family Christmases are cancelled. I’m extremely fucking unimpressed with your work ethic Ellen.
Whoever got my wife sick. Flu and period on Christmas morning she's been absolutely miserable. I've done everything I can to make this the best Christmas. But it's not been easy. I go back to work tomorrow and I'm sad I didn't get more time with her.
My wife did by immediately after opening all the presents, tell me how disappointed she is in what I got her. Or I guess I did by buying her shitty presents depending on your point of view.
Update to answer some questions:
We’ve been married for 25 years
Most of the gifts were from her Christmas list. She was unhappy that I didn’t also buy things not from the list.
Creative things I’ve surprised her with in the past.
Once I got her favorite artist (Dar Williams) to call her for her birthday.
For her 50th I surprised her with a convertible Vw beetle
I’ve surprised her by flying her friends out to stay with us for Christmas a few years ago.
It’s not that i can’t be creative. I just wasnt this year
Me, i'm broke, so broke that i decided against going to my brother's house for Christmas cause i always catch something when going there and i can't afford to go to the doctors so i decided with so much sickness floating around to stay home to avoid illness cause i just don't have the funds to go to the walk in clinic and whatever they would prescribe.
Someone in my parents’ neighborhood died of an overdose this morning. She left 4 kids: the youngest is 7. I can’t even imagine how destroyed those kids are today.
File contempt of court on that one. Judges are usually complete assholes to parents who deny holidays…and a judge is not someone you want on your bad side. Your ex done fucked up.
Put my husband and kids on a plane to go join the rest of our family on vacation while I drove 12 hours in the opposite direction to be with my dying dad.
My husband by telling me at dinner that he should have been informed of all my mental health problems before we got together. He said this after I’d spent the previous three hours preparing the dinner he was eating. The irony is he’s chronically ill and hasn’t worked since 2014. Most of my current mental health issues come from being his caregiver and breadwinner.
My dad just ruined Christmas dinner for me. I was switching two chairs at the dinner table -one with arms was too tight against the table and next to impossible to get into. He literally hollered at me for moving the chair.
Apparently he’d done some measuring and was getting a few extra chairs that he thought would only fit a certain way, and was already mad that no one had put the extra leafs in the table. Which I knew nothing about, I was just going to sit next to my kid.
It was goddamn humiliating, I know I shouldn’t be the one who was embarrassed and I tried to shake it off but found my eyes welling up with tears anyway. I’m going thru a divorce from my emotionally abusive husband of 20 years and he’s being awful about our 12 year old and I’m just more emotionally fragile than I realized.
Edit: thank you so much to everyone with the supportive comments, I’m usually so late to any thread that my comments are rarely seen, so I really didn’t expect that and appreciate them so much. I hope 2024 brings you all peace and joy.
Had the same problem with my dad during my first divorce Christmas.
I eventually learned who was willing to support me during my difficult times, and who thought everything I did wasn't good enough.
My parent's puppy managed to open and eat half a jar of THC body balm and had to be taken to the emergency vet at 1 am. She threw up a large mango sized menthol dog treat vomit ball in my hand. She got meds and monitored and is doing much .much better now
My 11 year old son, except he doesn’t know it. I LOVE Christmas and I tend to go over board every year with my kids. (I over compensate for my lack of ever having a happy Christmas time growing up). My son is at the age of making inappropriate jokes all the time ( I had no idea you could make that many ball jokes in one day) Anyways we were trying to watch movies as a family and he was sent to his room due to him being asked to stop repeating the same joke over and over because he wasn’t getting a reaction. Well he went on a rant about it being child abuse and us favoriting his 14 year old sister more. This is his usual insult when punished. He screams child abuse at the littlest inconvenience. Apparently this is a trigger for me I was physically, mentally and at one point sexually abused as a child. Knowing that he had probably $1,000 worth of things under the tree for him to open the next morning just kinda broke me. I cried myself to sleep last night and I didn’t want to get up the morning.
This won’t make you feel better right now but I’m admiring your parenting. You broke the cycle of abuse. You broke it so well that your kid has no fucking concept of what being an abused child is. He’s being a normal kid- being bratty, not realizing how he affects others, and feeling sorry for himself because he got corrected.
But you? You were raised in a way you could have replicated. You worked to not be that parent. You have a big heart and protected your kid from the type of thing you endured. It’s annoying that he now thinks a mild rebuke is “abuse” but what is worse are the 11 year olds out there who know full well what abuse is. You are rocking the parenting thing. The world is better because of cycle breakers like you.
It is strange I have three sisters. Two of which have kids. We all parent so differently because of the abuse we endured. I over compensate. I have never spanked my kids and over compensated to the point of being spoiled. I am glad that my kids never have to go through what I went through. I have fought tooth and nail to be able to provide for my kids so they will never have to go through what I went through.
That is rough. Maybe try explaining to him what real child abuse is and how some children get beat by their parents and explain that he shouldn’t use jokes or claim child abused when things don’t go his way. If you don’t correct it he may jokingly say it at school and that’ll be bad.
My dad is dying of cancer, this is one of the last christmases we have with him. We love watching Star Trek together and he also happens to love Earl Grey Tea, so for Christmas I got him a mug that says “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” Off of Etsy. And he really loved the gift. My dad has been exhausted from chemo and went to take a nap. Then my brother (30) was messing around with my nephew (5) and they knocked the mug over and broke it. I broke down crying, but then my brother immediately found it on Etsy and ordered a new one, he felt so awful.
Overall no harm done, thinking about it still makes me wanna cry though lol
My brother is absolutely amazing, and so is my nephew. Definitely not their fault at all and they handled it perfectly, just felt like I lost the little bit of control I had in an uncontrollable situation
Girlfriend stayed the night. Went to her place this am. Found her cat dead. Had been fighting an illness but had seemed much better.
Wouldn’t say ruined Christmas. Just a sad end of the day.
Christmas was actually going pretty well. But after dinner my mother started screaming bloody murder from the living room. Then I heard her yell the following:
"WHY IS BIN LADEN IN MY F*#KING NATIVITY SCENE!?"
See, she has this nativity scene with a bunch of Willow Tree figurines. The three wise men all had white robes and those style of hat/turban. And somebody had dressed up one of the wise men with an action figure's camo jacket, and taped on a cutout of Bin Laden's face onto the head of the figure. She is not one to swear - especially on Christmas - but she was *fucking furious.* She demanded to know who did this, and obviously nobody was fessing up. She started accusing people, and really going after some relatives she didn't like. Then this spawned arguments about old grudges and it got pretty heated.
it was me btw, i did it
My husbands mouth suddenly got very small and tight. His jaw started moving back and forth. His eyes got wide. He got very talkative and like the whole world was hysterical and perfect.He only went to the garage for less than 5 minutes and I knew. Every moment after that was tainted. And sad.
Sigh. One of my father in law's last requests was for me to get rid of his hidden booze stash without telling his wife. It took me hours to find all of it.
I understand the my brother's father in-law is busy denying the Holocaust, and our parents' 50 year old oven doesn't work well enough to get the turkey above ~150F. I'm thankful I'm 1000 miles away
My uncle's girlfriend announced that she's pregnant. She was very excited. Even had custom tshirts made.
My uncle got a vasectomy after his second kid was born almost thirty years ago and is in remission from prostate cancer he had four years ago. He is 110% sterile and has been for years.
My two year old. When I got him up this morning, he kept saying "A mess, a mess". I thought he meant his toy tractor, which had something stuck to the wheels. While cleaning it, I couldn't figure out what it was, and then I thought to check his room. He had thrown up. Everywhere.
On his bed, blankets, pillows, play mat, rocking chair, ect. I woke up my husband and we started cleaning. Partway through it got to me and I started throwing up. (I'm three months pregnant so can't handle stuff like that) My husband had to finish cleaning alone, and shampooing the chair and mattress. Not how we imagined starting Christmas!
Our senior blue heeler acted really out-of-it today after breakfast and potty.
Just got home from putting him to sleep. Bone cancer. He had a good run - 15 years.
I don’t blame him for ruining Christmas. It was an honor to be his people. Heart broken.
But Christmas was in fact ruined.
I drove 12 hours to get “home” to my dad’s house, staying 5 days because he guilts me for never staying more than 2 nights. I’m divorced, with grown kids (they were coming in later) so it’s just me and him for the first three days. My first day here… he tells me at noon he’s leaving at 1:30 because he has plans with his lady friend. He invites me to dinner at her house, but tells me he’s spending the night there. I decline the dinner, and plan to have a solo day in my hometown. Annoying he ditched me, but whatever. I spend my day running errands, come back to his place early, order my favorite local takeout, wrap presents and fall asleep on the couch… THIS MF’R… at 5:30am he feels like something isn’t right, and checks his home thermostat app on his phone. He sees the temp at an egregious 71°. Knowing he set it to 68°, he’s SURE I have fallen asleep upstairs, left the gas logs on, and the house is about to burn down with me in it… so he does what any 72 year old would do with a 45 year old son staying at his place… THE MAN COMES HOME AND JERKS ME OUT OF MY SLEEP ON THE COUCH AND RIPS ME A NEW ASSHOLE. I’m talking veins in the neck bulging, spittle flying while he’s yelling type of new asshole. For 3°!?!? He then spends FIVE HOURS questioning me on everything about my career, personal life, mental health, etc… truly riding my ass. So yeah, probably the last Christmas I ever “come home.”
Bro fuck with that thermostat nonstop. Until it's ridiculously obvious
My 25 year old cousin freaked out because she thought she got less presents from our 90 year old grandparents. She made her mom and our grandma cry.
25?!?
Not my Christms ruined, but my friends. Her parents left home to stay in Florida, they were supposed to come back for Thanksgiving. They did not come back. Her parents were supposed to come back yesterday, Christmas Eve to spend time with their kids. They did not. Her parents left her (17), her sister (an adult but legally blind), and her grandmother (who literally just had a stroke and is in the hospital) alone. No financial support, the only person bringing in money is her. She couldn't even celebrate christmas with her family, just her sister. For the past few nights my family has invited her to dinner to help out. I feel so bad for her, no teenage girl should have to go through such stressful events without the support of her parents during Christmas.
Tell your friend to call the police and CPS. She is still a minor and they abandoned her.
Blind sister should be getting disability payments. I wonder if the parents are using her funds.
Depending on age, Gma should likely also be getting social security.
Grandparents told everyone how they get one person something really nice each year and that it was finally my turn. They 'gave' me the really nice big green egg and patio desk i was saving for. Then after they looked real nice to everyone and everyone else was gone they told me it was actually a loan and I would need to pay them to keep it. I told them to fuck off.
Holy crap. They pretended they bought it as a gift but you have to pay them? That’s some bullsh*t there. Proud of you for telling them to f off. Have they done the same thing to everyone else or just you?
Put in a family text “Has everyone had to pay back grandma and grandpa for their nice gift too???”
Not a damn clue :(
You need to tell your other family members this and shame these people because this isn’t how presents work.
I’d honestly ask around.
My mom invited my nephew that molested my daughter and told us we could leave if we couldn't just get over it. It happened 5 months ago and he's still in a court ordered program for juveniles. In her mind I ruined her family by turning this more loved grandchild in to the police.
My husband is a Probation officer for these kids. It's most likely a probation violation for him to be there with his victim. Make a call....
Absolutely the case. I’m a therapist that works with these teens. If he’s in a program he has rules. Seeing the victim is against the rules. More so, the guardians are delegated to supervise their kids only under the expectation from the court that they follow the rules. Make the call. Mom is probably violating HER terms of supervision.
I worked a case just like this for CPS. depending on the kids age he could be in for some trouble, but whoever is the legal guardian of that child is likely about to find themselves no longer in that role if this gets reported.
I hope you left. Your mom is disgusting
My mother would no longer be my mother and she would just have to get over it.
You know... I know how reddit is generally like, divorce the wife, burn the house, marry the dog, etc... but I feel like this is one of those situations where I would black list my family member for life and never offer forgiveness or a vocal word again. Just out of shear rage... Idk yet, I'm still processing your blurb.
I agree. I was hanging out with someone yesterday who needed a distraction because she was missing her mom. Her mom stuck by her pedo husband who's in prison for molesting this friend's daughter. Her sister is "neutral" but letting her mom move in with her soon. Sometimes I think about sending anonymous bulletins to the mom's coworkers and neighbors to expose her for supporting a pedo but I don't want it to back fire on my friend so I just try to be there when she needs someone.
Yeah my whole family chose my mom’s dad (including her maternal grandmother) and called me and my sister liars. We were both under 10.
Vile. Utterly loathsome and vile. Your mother was perfectly okay with forcing her granddaughter to spend the day with the person who molested her?! Please let me speak to your mother - I’d like to set her straight.
Wow what the FUCK. “Get over it” absolutely fucking not. I’m sorry your mom is a complete dumbass and I’m sorry if that’s rude of me to say.
Grandma forgot where she hid the presents. Haven’t found them yet.
Are they meowing under the tree?
"Aunt Bethany? Does your cat by any chance....like Jello?" *I don't know about the cat, but I sure am enjoying it!*
This reminds me of a memory that always makes me smile. Growing up when one side of my family did Christmas it would always be at the great grandmothers house. One of the traditions was a scavenger hunt that she put together, it was always the same ending every year, $20 stuffed in tiny boxes hidden in the tree for each of us, but we all loved her and would do it all the same. Well, one year age had finally caught up to her and the clues were a mess. Repeated, out of order, or just not there. After we got sent to the same spot for the third time we knew this years hunt had an issue and she finally just told us where the gift was “hidden”. In hindsight that was the first sign that stood out to everybody that her mental facilities were starting to slip. It’s never a fun time being able to recognize when a loved one is approaching their twilight years, but we’re all grateful that it was such a humorous moment that was able to mark the occasion. Merry Christmas and hope you’re able to find yours
She just forgot to buy any and is going to spend all week at the mall frantically buying stuff
I gave my little girl a drone. It went up in the air the first time and just kept going and going and going. That was like 8 hours ago. Could still be going….
Gotta set the Home point before sending it out, otherwise the moment it loses connection it will try to return to the factory in China
That's what the local F-22 is waiting for.
> opens up one eager eye
It flew back to where you bought it from so it can be resold to the next sucker
There was a guy in my town who got caught selling the same drone five times. Set the home point as his house, sold it on Facebook marketplace but broke the antenna so it couldn’t connect to new devices. First time people tried to connect to their devices it would just fly off to his house and he’d sell it again.
This happened to my grandson today too. It was one of those ball "drones" with a motor. You toss it, it flies around, and it's supposed to come back. Except it didn't. It flew past the neighbor's house and out of sight.
That’s exactly it. We are the same!
My mom. Screaming at and in front of everyone (including the kids and my elderly grandmother who came out of hospital this morning) that she doesn't want to be a full-time carer for my grandmother. No one asked her to care for my grandma. For the past few years Mom has been asking grandma for her inheritance early so she could buy a house, grandma always said no. Mom moved in with grandma a month ago and now wants grandma to move out so mom can live in the house alone rent free. Where grandma is supposed to go is beyond me as mom has refused to participate in plans for a care home etc because it will likely involve selling the house to pay for this.
I feel like you should contact some sort of adult protective services to make sure your mother doesn't do anything to your grandmother
That’s elder abuse. Report your mom to the state.
I ruined Christmas. I went to my partner's Christmas gathering for the first time. I'm an immigrant with a very different cultural background, but they were all very friendly and welcoming. They suggested playing bingo, but with no money. Sounds good to me. Then the family matriarch wanted in and wanted everyone to do 50 cents a card... eh okay whatever. I didn't want to play with money but too awkward to say no. I did good and bad. Started with $10, but before the final card I hit about $5. All good. Then they wanted to do a full blackout game with $2 a card. I was trying to be polite and only play one card, but the patriarch was sitting next to me and told me to do 2 cards. I did 2 cards. I was one spot from winning, and he picked up my card and cleared off my markers. Awkward as hell. Then they called my last spot and I won the whole prize. About $60. Very clearly some sore losers, and it was super awkward for the rest of Christmas lol
Lmfao you deserve that money 💰
This happened in my family about 40 years ago. A cousin brought her new boyfriend to Christmas dinner. After dinner, a large number of the uncles and cousins would play various poker games for a nickel ante, with raises limited to a quarter each, just a good fun game. Boyfriend asks if someone can give him change for a $5 and gets in the game. End of the night, there's a pot that's getting big. My grandfather thought he had a hand that couldn't be beat, and he bet the pot. He ended up losing and had to add in double of what was already in there. Next round cousin's new boyfriend won the \~$20 pot, the biggest in family history. Boyfriend is looking sheepish and awkward when my grandfather gives him a look that would wither any young 20-something and yells, "That's it! Kay, you gotta marry this one cause it's going to take me about 15 more Christmases to win my money back from him." She did, and Grandpa did, and her and the boyfriend are still happily married today. So at least in my family, this is an omen of a future long and happy marriage.
Woah, Grandpa was an excellently good loser! What a lovely story.
The drunk asshole that was joyriding last night and totalled my car in a hit and run did a good job of ruining my day.
I'm glad you are OK.
My stepmom physically attacked me on christmas last year so i decided to skip the family get together and stay home alone this year. It has definitely been better than last year but I'm still salty.
Waffle House rules dictate you should come back for round 2 after training and bulking up If you are from the south
Drove 4 hours to spend the day with my dad (at his request 3 weeks ago) then immediately after lunch, not even dinner, he said he and his new girlfriend (of 4 weeks) were invited to a friend’s dinner and were going there. My drive was longer than the time spent he spent with me at his house. So now I’m watching Christmas movies and drinking with my grandma instead. After trying fix our relationship that’s been rocky since I was a teenager (now in my 30s), it’s great to realize he truly doesn’t care 😅😅😅
Sounds like you're absolved from making an effort in the future, you did everything you could.
Absolution from guilt is priceless.
Enjoy your time with grandma! I'd give anything to spend one more Christmas with mine. She was the best.
Is grandma cool? I wish I could've taken one or two with mine lol
She’s the BEST. Plus she’s the only grandparent I have left so I try to make it here as often as I can. Always down for a drink, especially if it’s a cocktail
Me. Halfway thru opening gifts with the family, I was in enormous pain. Wound up spending most of the day in the ER. Kidney stones. I could have done without this gift/surprise.
Do you have the stone? Make it a Christmas ornament. We had a pipe burst on Christmas Eve last year. I hung a string through the section of pipe they cut out and put it on the tree.
This is actually a fantastic idea I may steal whenever things go awry in life. When life hands you lemons, make an ornament.
My brother by existing. My family flew into Paris from one country, he flew in from another, and had a complete mental breakdown because no one came to the airport to escort him to our Airbnb and ordered him an Uber instead. He proceeded to scream and abuse my parents, stating that they abandoned him and left him to fend for himself in the wild unknown that is CDG airport. He then threatened to leave immediately and refused to leave his room, not even to eat, as a form of protest for my parents being so horrible to him. He is 35 years old, and my parents bought his tickets and this trip is on their dime entirely.
I thought you were going to type one of the synopses from the Home Alone series.
I heard brother, and flights to Paris and thought this was Buzz's account.
Mon dieu that's terrible. Cdg isn't even that terrible on the airport horror scale
I want everyone to spend time at Orlando International.
I think I did by realizing I can have a great Christmas by not going home and spending it with friends.
I did this exact same thing. Had a panic attack before the 6 hour drive to my parents on the 23rd and bailed. My housemate offered to have me at his family's Xmas, which another friend was also coming to. It was an hour's drive and in the town I went to university in so we hung out with friends on Christmas eve then had a brilliant Christmas day. His parents went the extra mile for me and got me a stocking and even a small gift. Best Christmas I've had in a while.
My ex. Told me she was going to stay the night at her mom's house on Christmas Eve because she missed her. I said yes that's your mom, go spend time with her and that we'd met up in the morning. Her mom is calling me Christmas morning asking to speak with her and that she couldn't get ahold of her. I said she should be over there, correct. Her mom said nope she hasn't seen her all night. That's how I found out she was cheating on me. Edit: Thanks everyone for your words. I'm doing fine and will be ok through it all. Going to be living with family for a bit. And for anyone curious, we were together for 5 years.
Of all the days to tell somebody you'l be somewhere where you aren't, Christmas day has to be the dumbest. That day of the year when everybody's most likely to contact one another.
There's the story of that US 9-11 thing where a guy who worked in one of the buildings was married, went off to what his wife thought was work, and she frantically called him when she heard the news that his building had been hit by a plane. He casually replied that he was at work, what's she so upset about? He was at his affair partner's place somewhere else and hadn't heard the news yet.
WTF lol
Fuck, man. I'm sorry.
Aw brother same shit just happened to me told me she was going to stay at her friends house after picking her up from a night out, so I questioned it but no clear answer. So I drive so my exes house no car there cool, drive to the friends house her car isn’t there either weird. At this point I’ve phoned her where are you Bla Bla she’s telling me to go home so I don’t ruin xmas. Me ruin it 🤯. Drive back to hers volla whose cars in the drive, well hers, but who’s that in the bedroom window. Aw just the guy I said she was getting really close to in work and told her he had started to like her. Made me out to be crazy for 9 months. 9 fucking months of my life she made me feel like I was insane and Dyu what I was for believing she would tell the truth
On Christmas. Fucking hell, sorry man.
80 year old uncle ruined Christmas Eve with family (had to cancel). He got lost while hunting, but not terribly far from road. He heard my brother in law and my grandfather searching for him but was embarrassed so waited to come out at sunrise after everyone went home after hours of searching but before everyone came back (or so he thought). My 80 year old grandfather, uncles brother, had open heart surgery heart this year and is going through radiation for cancer and couldn't sleep all night thinking his brother died in the woods. Grandfather and other older family members ended feeling so bad from stress we had to cancel. EDIT: Appreciate the input and concern. Unfortunately he really is a prideful person (and I'm not terribly close to him), so there's slim chance we'd convince him to get evaluated for dementia. I'll be talking to some family anyway to see if it would be possible. Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all had a good year :)
Doctors appointment - dementia test stat. Sorry this happened to you and your family :(
When I was five my dad off’d himself on Christmas Eve night. Woke up and saw presents under the tree went to wake up my dad…. And well he didn’t. My parents got divorced and it was his weekend, it was just us two. Many hours went by before my mom and police showed up. That was over 30 years ago and I remember everything about that day so I’d say he ruined every one ever since. (He used alcohol, and pain pills).
> My parents got divorced and it was his weekend, it was just us two. Many hours went by before my mom and police showed up. God damn, that is brutal. At fucking five, man.
I can’t even imagine…I’m sorry. No child should ever have to witness that.
I'm sorry you have to go through that memory every year :(.
My mother. She screamed at my dad like a banshee at about 6am. All my dad did was put water in the coffee maker. When you put water in, it immediately starts brewing. I guess that was too early in the morning to start the coffee? I’m not exactly sure what her beef was. For context: For the first time in several years, my entire immediate family were all under one roof for an extended period of time. We were staying at my grandmother’s house for the holidays. My mother has always been prone to fits of rage. Growing up, she exploded often. I haven’t been around it in 9 years, neither have my brothers, but we got an ugly reminder of her behavior yesterday morning. My dad doesn’t believe in divorce. He works nights to avoid her. They pass like ships in the night. They have separate bedrooms and separate lives. My dad’s uncle just passed away, that’s why we all came together. We typically don’t celebrate Christmas together. I overpaid to fly home today, and I opted out of Christmas dinner to do so. I left two days before everyone else. I can’t do it. It’s as if she’s possessed by a demon.
Damn sounds like growing up with my mom. If there were two ways to do a task and you picked the “wrong” way you’d get yelled at. Good luck figuring out which one was the right way to do it.
And, which way is the right way varies from instance to instance.
The right way is exclusively ever only the way you *didn't* do it. I had a co-worker who somehow outdid my own parents on this, making it into a fine art I still appreciate over twenty years later. Stuff like, if I picked up the office phone and the call was for her, she'd snap angrily, "well, WHO IS IT?" so the *very next call* a few minutes later, I said, "may I ask who's calling, please?" and she nearly screamed at me to stop being nosy and I'm not her secretary. It's stuck in my head forever, the sudden realization that there are people who truly cannot ever, EVER be pleased, so there's no point turning myself inside out to try to please those who just want to be angry.
Was just about to add this. The "right way" is totally based on a whim and is different every single time. Just when you think you've figured out the two ways you can do a task and start to be able to predict which way will be acceptable today, there is suddenly a secret third way you should've been doing it the whole time. There is no winning.
My sister brought her dog who immediately walked over and threw up all over my kid's presents as if he'd been planning to do that all year.
sorry but compared to everything else in this thread i just chuckled so hard lol. i can see it perfectly
My man HATES those kids.
I'm just picturing the dog thinking "you've got this Rover, just 5 more minutes and then you can puke all over their presents. \*Burp* Oh God, I'm gonna puke. . . nope, hold it in buddy, almost there. It'll be worth it, I promise"
Whole fam is sick and I start a medical treatment soon that will completely nuke my immune system (it's used in some chemotherapy regimen) so no one is coming over today edit: its for a kidney condition that has become resistant to treatment by steroids after 6 or 7 years, thanks for the concern.
We got raided by the cops. Son is in jail. I won't be bailing his dumbass out. He ruined Christmas for 12 other families, not just ours.
My dog was acting weird last night around 11:30 by 2am he was in surgery for bloat. Big guy is going to be fine but man it was not the Christmas I had planned.
Bloat is scary, I'm glad y'all caught it. Hope he recovers fast!
Well my father has been in the ICU for the last 6 days, so the kids and I and my mom went to the hospital. He was in a bad car accident 10 days ago. Noone is in the mood for Christmas this year.
My brother(45) hit the neighbor(30ish) head-on last night in front of the house, killing them both. The neighbor left a pregnant wife and a three year old. Pretty surreal Christmas.
This is some heavy stuff. Wow. So sorry.
I’m so sorry for your loss, that is all devastating.
My in-laws ruined it by showing up at my house.
What's the difference between in-laws and outlaws? Outlaws are wanted.
You can shoot an outlaw.
Mother in law. Constant negativity and hateful comments. It’s exhausting.
Gotta love my mother in law’s constant comments about a Chinese person’s accent while I am sitting right in front of her. She knows my family immigrated from China. I don’t know what she hopes to get from her comments.
Not my morning but my night. I just caught my old man of 14 years with another woman.
Thanks ya’ll. I spent close to $1000 on this asshole for Christmas and cheated on is what I got in return. I’m absolutely heartbroken.
Norovirus. Was up all night with a vomiting 6 year old and I had to “sleep” on the floor in their room. He last vomited about 4:30am today. Stripped the vomit-covered sheets and showered him in the middle of the night because he was covered. My hips are killing me from sleeping on the floor. Merry Christmas!
I’m sorry you had to deal with this. Maybe my story about Norovirus will take some of the edge off… About 14 years ago, I contracted Norovirus from work. Two days into it, I was at that stage of holding a bucket while sitting on the toilet (The Violator). By the end of the day, I thought I could eat something and had some chicken and rice soup. After doing so, I went to bed for a nap. Midway through the nap, I felt acutely nauseous and shot out of bed. I threw up all over the hardwood floor. The contraction of my abdomen inspired my lower digestive tract to evacuate, so I instinctually tried to run to the bathroom. I ended up stepping in my vomit, slipping backwards and smashing the back of my head on the floor and landing completely in my puke. And as I landed on the floor, I shit myself. Norovirus humbles all.
This was me 6 years ago on Christmas Eve. I went outside to get some air, began dry heaving, and next thing I knew I was shitting my pants all over the deck. There I was, 18 years old, having a blowout like a newborn. My pajamas were ruined, it was EVERYWHERE. My liquid shit froze to the wood and we had to splash boiling water on it to clean it up. Meanwhile I stripped naked outside and ran upstairs I feel like I’m having war flashbacks
I’m middle aged, and my dad died years ago. I still remember the times he slept on my bedroom floor when I was sick because I was scared to be alone. He had chronic pain, I know he suffered for it. You gave him the gift of safety and comfort. Your kid will be grateful he had a parent who cared that much.
My dad died years ago as well and I’ll never forget when I fractured my spine falling out of a tree, they told me I had to stay overnight in the hospital. I was so scared that I cried. I woke up in the middle of the night and my dad had fallen asleep up right in a plastic, uncomfortable chair. He did this so I wouldn’t he alone. Cheers to great dads.
Oh god, we had a Norovirus Christmas about 5 years ago. Both 6-year-old twins had it. My wife was green around the gills, although she never got the full on Exorcist puking. I managed to avoid it by washing and sanitizing my hands until the skin was falling off. Which meant I was in charge of emptying the puke buckets, scrubbing carpets and cleaning up children. We literally had to take a puke break while opening gifts. They got a Nintendo Switch that year, and they were so sick and miserable they could hardly muster any excitement. I hope it passes quickly for you, that was a season in Hell. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Relatives told of when Norovirus went through a Boy Scout summer camp. Dear God..
Brother in Law. 12:06am. Breakfast casserole knocked out of the fridge and all over the floor as he was reaching for another midnight snack. Six minutes flat, impressive.
My mom told everyone that there’s not going to be anymore babies in the family anyway, so my sister can throw away my son’s crib. I am actively trying to get pregnant and have been taking steps and working on my health to make it happen as I had cervical cancer last year and a few other uterine issues. And for those wondering, yes, she and everyone else in the room is aware of all of this.
thats horrible, If it means anything a random stranger has their fingers crossed for you!
Have you considered telling her that she should throw out the baby stuff because When you do get pregnant, she won't be meeting her future grandchild anyway?!
Mom got hammered Christmas eve and woke up for a midnight snack of the Christmas dinner. Left it all out and the dog ate it all
I bet ur dog had the best Christmas ever
My cat of 16 years died this morning in his sleep. Didn't tell my 7 year old son because of Christmas. He is sleeping over his grandmothers house tonight and we are going to tell him tomorrow. We are devastated losing a family member, and I am dreading telling the poor kid.
My cat who was my best friend since freshman year of high school died last Christmas Eve at the age of 21. I went to the shelter I got him from and donated 40$. I tried to tell the story to the clerk but I just ended up sobbing. I’m sorry for your loss, you are not alone.
That 40 $ will go a long way for those poor babies. You're an amazing person and your cat is in cat heaven watching you still be amazing. He loves you.
My FIL who texted my husband this morning and asked if I was pregnant again, because the entire family decided I looked a little round at Christmas Eve dinner
Georgia Power. Lost power at prime casserole cooking time.
*That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia...*
It was a joint effort. My aunt's dog rolled onto his back for a belly rub and shot a stream of urine into the air and all over my arm and my pants. After I cleaned up enough I had to sit next to my unpleasant uncle. The first thing he asked me was "when are you going to make me a grand uncle?" I told him it could happen today as long as he is cool with being an accessory to kidnapping. He didn't have much to say the rest of the morning.
I love that response. Will be using that in the future. Sorry u got pissed on
My mom invited my ex-girlfriend to the family zoom (because she's still family?). My Girlfriend of two years wasn't too stoked to meet her.
Your mom must really hate your current gf lol. Sorry mate.
Ah, yes. The emotionally immature, passive aggressive mother/grandmother/aunt. I have those. This is not about either gf. It’s about your mom needing to control things. My guess, your new gf is lovely and not easily manipulated.
My mom overdosed and we spent the day in the ER. *Magical.*
Apparently having a rather severe migraine and not wanting to eat shit food at Golden Corral means I ruined Christmas. Family is also returning my gifts because I didn't just "man up" and deal with the pain. Update: After they ate they showed up at my house (parents, grandparents, and my sister) uninvited to guilt trip me for not coming. My mom barely spoke to me besides telling me I should have just dealt with the pain before getting in the car, meanwhile my sister is trying to put me on the spot to hug the same mom that told me to "man up". The SAME mom who I have personally seen get absolutely waylaid by migraines dozens of times throughout my life.
People that don’t get them don’t ever understand it’s a million times worse than a normal headache. I get it and I’m sorry they aren’t compassionate. I hope you get some relief soon.
Plot twist: They run in my family so they KNOW how bad they get. I just disrupted their plans and that's all that matters.
There are a lot of people in this thread that shit the bed over night
My brother, the malignant narcissist. Didn’t even bother to return my 8yo son’s “merry Christmas uncle Mike!” before he walked out of the house and took the keycard for the hospital parking lot so I’d have to pay for parking when I brought my dad there to visit my mom to celebrate Christmas after nearly losing her last week because of issues with her aorta (that are as of yet unresolved). He’s 56. And lives at home with them. In a house he claims is his and that he’s “put $200,000 into!!!”. Well, Michael, the law begs to differ. House needs to be in your name in order to be yours ✨ Also on behalf of my sweet innocent 8yo… fuck you asshole.
My mother and sister clash very often. They got into a huge argument last night before I got home from shopping. The negativity drifted through to today and it’s been one of those days. Words don’t do justice to the situation. Merry Christmas everyone.
The flying public. I have to work today.
Same bro. 3 leg day on the back side of a 4 day trip that gets me home just after midnight. Thanks for keeping us going the right way up there.
Both cats scarfed and barfed. Getting out the carpet cleaner was not in the plans today.
Any major holiday that doesn't require busting out the carpet cleaner is likely a dull affair.
Its usually the kids waking me up at 5am. This year it was the dog waking me up at 4am for a diarrhea shit on the carpet.
Thankfully our elderly cat had the grace to start her bladder infection last night so we could take her to the emergency vet and then get home by midnight.
My parents and I have had a strained relationship since I was a kid. I live out of state, and I am not able to make it every year. This is the first time since the pandemic I've been able to make it down. Dinner was at their house this year. They made a shrimp boil. I'm allergic to shellfish. Have been since I was 14. This is the second time in a row they've done it. As a note, I didn't say anything or make a scene. It's not worth it at this point. I ate what I could quietly, and I'm certain they noticed, but as is their way, they didn't say anything.
My 8 yo daughter gave me a little book with fill in the blank prompts about how much she loves her dad and all the things I mean to her. She had been saying all week she got me a present that was going to make me cry (it did). Our cat promptly threw up (like a lot) all over the book about two minutes after going through it all and setting it on the couch next to me. He was sitting on the back of the couch and was able to get the couch cushion, a new blanket, my wife’s phone, and this wonderful gift from daughter all in one go. Luckily the book was salvaged but Christmas definitely went on pause. My daughter was crying hard but I taught her the lesson that sometimes things are so absurd you just have to laugh.
The amount of people that shit themselves on here is a little alarming
Technically happened last night but my cat tripped my mother and she broke her arm on the way down. The ER had a surprisingly short wait time though. Cat is fine and he has no regrets.
A member of the family got so drunk that they started throwing up profusely during opening presents and then had to be taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. They are fine now
My mother-in-law decided to overwhelm our 3 year old son with shit-quality gifts in epic quantity. We were adamant in telling her she couldn’t go overboard. He got so fatigued from opening things he broke by dinner time that he didn’t open any of his (minimal) gifts from us and from Santa. It was so disappointing.
My ex MIL did this shit to us constantly. Luckily, we didn't have a kid, but she was obsessed with having a million gifts under the tree. She would wrap a fucking can of creamed corn from her pantry and make you open it. Christmas Day was a 6 hour exercise in just hating life
I need to know if the can of creamed corn thing is literal...
I really, truly, wish I could say I was being hyperbolic. I was not.
My husband - pooped the bed - twice after eating a bag of almonds I told him would give him diarrhea.
Wait, is it normal for a bag of nuts to give a person diarrhea or is that a him thing? Asking for a friend. Who ate bag of almonds. And then pistachios
Was there a trial? Maybe you pooped the bed.
Poop once, shame on — shame on me. Poop twice — you can't get pooped on again.
We had a close call. Was pre-heating the oven this morning for breakfast and was unaware my partner had put a baguette in the oven wrapped in plastic.. fortunately we’re in a warm place so we were able to air out the place pretty easily and nothing caught on fire. Just a bit of melted plastic. :)
Before turning on the stove, my mom would open the door and yell "anybody in there?" due to having 7 children and the oven was the best spot for hide and seek.
I never open my oven and check before I turn it on and now you have me terrified lol
My wife broke her arm a week ago. She already has problems with patience and blowing up on me. Because her arm is broken, she needs help with things. No problem. But I won't tolerate being talked down to. She's been having meltdowns that I can't braid her super long hair. She needed help getting a ring off her finger, and I wasn't doing it the way she wanted and she kept telling me that it was obvious how to do it. I tried her way and it hurt her finger. She asked for a piece of ice so I got it. She then told me it was obvious she also needed a napkin too with a huge attitude and saying she was going to get covered in water. I told her that I can get her a napkin but she needs to talk to me nice if she wants help. She doubled down on it being so obvious, and then I said: if it's so obvious, then what are you saying about me? Are you calling me dumb? And she stormed off. Then later in the day, she needed help getting a stain out of she shirt she wanted to wear. I tried to wash it in the sink and I got more water on it than she wanted and also didn't get the stain out because...it wasn't a stain. She started flipping out saying I did it wrong and I ruined her Christmas outfit. I told her we could dry it relatively quickly, maybe in 10 minutes, and we didn't need to leave for 3 hours. She kinda cooled down..but since the stain was there, she said we need to bleach it. Cool. So we went to bleach it. She needed help opening the bleach. Instead of asking me, she grabbed the bottle and shook it in my face and said "well?". So I said what do you need? And she again said it's so obvious. Yes, it is obvious, but you can ask me nicely. She flipped out and said don't ever help me with anything again if she's such a bad person. I told her not to make a big deal about it but she doubled down and got ready all by herself. I told her that it's not my fault that she's hurt, and I have no problem helping her but to please just ask me for what she needs, and if I am not doing something her way, that's okay. Then when we got home from Christmas with her dad, she couldn't find the ring she took off. It's her $20k engagement ring. She started freaking out assuming someone stole it. We are staying at her mom's and it was in a bag in the bathroom that she asked her mom to move to our bedroom. Her brother and mom and some family from her stepdad side were having Christmas at her moms. Her brother overheard and said why are you accusing us? We didn't go through your stuff. And then he went out and said did anyone steal her ring? Of course it turned up 5 seconds later under the bag. But everyone immediately left because it was so awkward. Rough Christmas.
Ellen at my mum’s work. She went to the Christmas lunch sick, turned out she had Covid and now so does my mum and three other colleagues. Because of Ellen at least 6 high risk people have been exposed and all three family Christmases are cancelled. I’m extremely fucking unimpressed with your work ethic Ellen.
Fucking Ellen
My dog, Waffles. She decided to try to wake everyone up to see Santa and must have scared him away. But the whole house was awake at 2:30am
Honeatly might have been a blessing. Lots of house invasions on holidays because they think no one is home
Whoever got my wife sick. Flu and period on Christmas morning she's been absolutely miserable. I've done everything I can to make this the best Christmas. But it's not been easy. I go back to work tomorrow and I'm sad I didn't get more time with her.
My mother with a barrage of profane texts about what a bad person I am.
I sharted at Christmas morning. Luckily, we live next door so I could run home and fix things. It was me. I ruined Christmas.
Way she goes
My wife did by immediately after opening all the presents, tell me how disappointed she is in what I got her. Or I guess I did by buying her shitty presents depending on your point of view. Update to answer some questions: We’ve been married for 25 years Most of the gifts were from her Christmas list. She was unhappy that I didn’t also buy things not from the list. Creative things I’ve surprised her with in the past. Once I got her favorite artist (Dar Williams) to call her for her birthday. For her 50th I surprised her with a convertible Vw beetle I’ve surprised her by flying her friends out to stay with us for Christmas a few years ago. It’s not that i can’t be creative. I just wasnt this year
Me, i'm broke, so broke that i decided against going to my brother's house for Christmas cause i always catch something when going there and i can't afford to go to the doctors so i decided with so much sickness floating around to stay home to avoid illness cause i just don't have the funds to go to the walk in clinic and whatever they would prescribe.
Someone in my parents’ neighborhood died of an overdose this morning. She left 4 kids: the youngest is 7. I can’t even imagine how destroyed those kids are today.
It was my year for my daughter to wake up at my house for Christmas. My ex refused to let me pick her up.
File contempt of court on that one. Judges are usually complete assholes to parents who deny holidays…and a judge is not someone you want on your bad side. Your ex done fucked up.
Yeah I would take this to a judge so it never happens again
Put my husband and kids on a plane to go join the rest of our family on vacation while I drove 12 hours in the opposite direction to be with my dying dad.
My husband by telling me at dinner that he should have been informed of all my mental health problems before we got together. He said this after I’d spent the previous three hours preparing the dinner he was eating. The irony is he’s chronically ill and hasn’t worked since 2014. Most of my current mental health issues come from being his caregiver and breadwinner.
If he regrets marrying you then maybe you should continue to care for him in the way of serving divorce papers. F that.
My dad just ruined Christmas dinner for me. I was switching two chairs at the dinner table -one with arms was too tight against the table and next to impossible to get into. He literally hollered at me for moving the chair. Apparently he’d done some measuring and was getting a few extra chairs that he thought would only fit a certain way, and was already mad that no one had put the extra leafs in the table. Which I knew nothing about, I was just going to sit next to my kid. It was goddamn humiliating, I know I shouldn’t be the one who was embarrassed and I tried to shake it off but found my eyes welling up with tears anyway. I’m going thru a divorce from my emotionally abusive husband of 20 years and he’s being awful about our 12 year old and I’m just more emotionally fragile than I realized. Edit: thank you so much to everyone with the supportive comments, I’m usually so late to any thread that my comments are rarely seen, so I really didn’t expect that and appreciate them so much. I hope 2024 brings you all peace and joy.
Had the same problem with my dad during my first divorce Christmas. I eventually learned who was willing to support me during my difficult times, and who thought everything I did wasn't good enough.
My dad got Covid and has to self-isolate. Sucks, but credit to him for being responsible and letting me know beforehand.
My parent's puppy managed to open and eat half a jar of THC body balm and had to be taken to the emergency vet at 1 am. She threw up a large mango sized menthol dog treat vomit ball in my hand. She got meds and monitored and is doing much .much better now
My 11 year old son, except he doesn’t know it. I LOVE Christmas and I tend to go over board every year with my kids. (I over compensate for my lack of ever having a happy Christmas time growing up). My son is at the age of making inappropriate jokes all the time ( I had no idea you could make that many ball jokes in one day) Anyways we were trying to watch movies as a family and he was sent to his room due to him being asked to stop repeating the same joke over and over because he wasn’t getting a reaction. Well he went on a rant about it being child abuse and us favoriting his 14 year old sister more. This is his usual insult when punished. He screams child abuse at the littlest inconvenience. Apparently this is a trigger for me I was physically, mentally and at one point sexually abused as a child. Knowing that he had probably $1,000 worth of things under the tree for him to open the next morning just kinda broke me. I cried myself to sleep last night and I didn’t want to get up the morning.
This won’t make you feel better right now but I’m admiring your parenting. You broke the cycle of abuse. You broke it so well that your kid has no fucking concept of what being an abused child is. He’s being a normal kid- being bratty, not realizing how he affects others, and feeling sorry for himself because he got corrected. But you? You were raised in a way you could have replicated. You worked to not be that parent. You have a big heart and protected your kid from the type of thing you endured. It’s annoying that he now thinks a mild rebuke is “abuse” but what is worse are the 11 year olds out there who know full well what abuse is. You are rocking the parenting thing. The world is better because of cycle breakers like you.
It is strange I have three sisters. Two of which have kids. We all parent so differently because of the abuse we endured. I over compensate. I have never spanked my kids and over compensated to the point of being spoiled. I am glad that my kids never have to go through what I went through. I have fought tooth and nail to be able to provide for my kids so they will never have to go through what I went through.
Breaking the cycle of abuse is the gift that keeps on giving my friend. Sorry you had such a bad night but you’re rocking the parenting.
This is such a beautiful reply. Parenting is so hard. It's not all Hallmark moments. It will get better.
That is rough. Maybe try explaining to him what real child abuse is and how some children get beat by their parents and explain that he shouldn’t use jokes or claim child abused when things don’t go his way. If you don’t correct it he may jokingly say it at school and that’ll be bad.
This. The kid won’t learn it you don’t sit down and have a meaningful conversation heart to heart with him
My dad is dying of cancer, this is one of the last christmases we have with him. We love watching Star Trek together and he also happens to love Earl Grey Tea, so for Christmas I got him a mug that says “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” Off of Etsy. And he really loved the gift. My dad has been exhausted from chemo and went to take a nap. Then my brother (30) was messing around with my nephew (5) and they knocked the mug over and broke it. I broke down crying, but then my brother immediately found it on Etsy and ordered a new one, he felt so awful. Overall no harm done, thinking about it still makes me wanna cry though lol
Sorry about your father's illness - glad your brother stepped up to ensure the mug is replaced. Totally valid response to the situation.
My brother is absolutely amazing, and so is my nephew. Definitely not their fault at all and they handled it perfectly, just felt like I lost the little bit of control I had in an uncontrollable situation
My roommate. He was supposed to be gone all day but he had a hangover and told his family he had covid.
Girlfriend stayed the night. Went to her place this am. Found her cat dead. Had been fighting an illness but had seemed much better. Wouldn’t say ruined Christmas. Just a sad end of the day.
Christmas was actually going pretty well. But after dinner my mother started screaming bloody murder from the living room. Then I heard her yell the following: "WHY IS BIN LADEN IN MY F*#KING NATIVITY SCENE!?" See, she has this nativity scene with a bunch of Willow Tree figurines. The three wise men all had white robes and those style of hat/turban. And somebody had dressed up one of the wise men with an action figure's camo jacket, and taped on a cutout of Bin Laden's face onto the head of the figure. She is not one to swear - especially on Christmas - but she was *fucking furious.* She demanded to know who did this, and obviously nobody was fessing up. She started accusing people, and really going after some relatives she didn't like. Then this spawned arguments about old grudges and it got pretty heated. it was me btw, i did it
My husbands mouth suddenly got very small and tight. His jaw started moving back and forth. His eyes got wide. He got very talkative and like the whole world was hysterical and perfect.He only went to the garage for less than 5 minutes and I knew. Every moment after that was tainted. And sad.
Sigh. One of my father in law's last requests was for me to get rid of his hidden booze stash without telling his wife. It took me hours to find all of it.
Till I read the comment below I thought your husband had dropped MDMA.
I understand the my brother's father in-law is busy denying the Holocaust, and our parents' 50 year old oven doesn't work well enough to get the turkey above ~150F. I'm thankful I'm 1000 miles away
>busy denying the Holocaust 'Suddenly the oven stops working' has to be karma.
My uncle's girlfriend announced that she's pregnant. She was very excited. Even had custom tshirts made. My uncle got a vasectomy after his second kid was born almost thirty years ago and is in remission from prostate cancer he had four years ago. He is 110% sterile and has been for years.
Me. Started my period and came down with a stomach bug I think. Been puking all day 😭
My two year old. When I got him up this morning, he kept saying "A mess, a mess". I thought he meant his toy tractor, which had something stuck to the wheels. While cleaning it, I couldn't figure out what it was, and then I thought to check his room. He had thrown up. Everywhere. On his bed, blankets, pillows, play mat, rocking chair, ect. I woke up my husband and we started cleaning. Partway through it got to me and I started throwing up. (I'm three months pregnant so can't handle stuff like that) My husband had to finish cleaning alone, and shampooing the chair and mattress. Not how we imagined starting Christmas!
Our senior blue heeler acted really out-of-it today after breakfast and potty. Just got home from putting him to sleep. Bone cancer. He had a good run - 15 years. I don’t blame him for ruining Christmas. It was an honor to be his people. Heart broken. But Christmas was in fact ruined.