Ah the holidays
In a break from holiday tradition we managed to go, well, so far, without one single thing being ste on fire. Not one single thing. This may be a first in the history of our holidays. My rather extreme nervousness around naked flames is thankful, however.
However, my great aunt did die on Christmas Eve, which was rather unpleasant. It is the commonly held view by her surviving sisters that she died on Christmas Eve out of spite, that she always had the worst possible timing and that she always did know how to ruin a party. One learns at this point that when relatives over the age of 80 start sticking in their knives it’s best just to nod and smile and shuffle away, lest they turn on you
But then it was announced that we should drink to her memory and since she was 97 that was a lot of memory to drink to.
It may seem kind of heartless - but she was 97 and her quality of life had declined to an atrocious level leading to more a sense of relief than mourning. Still for a while I have to do the Family Lawyer duty of making sure her death and all trhe stuff around it is handled properly,. especially since her children, while generally nice people, aren’t the deepest thinkers out there
We did go to mother’s as is traditional, but the badness was kept at bay largely because Nana and 2 great aunts were also in attendence and the aunts were busy complaining about the great aunt who was so thoughtless as to die at Christmas. Nana, sadly had one of her bad days. She has very advanced Alzheimers, doesn’t recognise, well, anyone really, flails around desperately trying to fit the world into her shattered recollections of what it was like in 1940 and gets extremely agitated when it doesn’t fit - which it never does.
So Christmas Day was.. difficult. More than most even. But nothing burned and it’s nothing we didn’t expect. It’s always been the Season of Duty & Awkwardness & Hard Work and never really been something of greta joy per se. Now is the holiday for us - the aftermath. Familial Duty is Done and now you can actually enjoy the peace and the shinies and the left overs (of which there are stunning, awe inspiring, terrifying amounts) this is our real holiday
Especially since brother mine couldn’t get through for Christmas and is now due on Wednesday for a second min, duty-free Christmas, which should be interesting, but at the same time drags the whole social aspect of Christmas out even further when I just want to curl up with Beloved, reading ebooks. My hermit senses are screaming at me
Donotwantness continues apace with possible eye opening melt downs directed at the parental units. Torn between hoping for results and irritation that it happened.
Ah busy busy busy. Also did not get to watch Dr. Who Christmas special. I am disappoint