Anyone NOT care about doing the usual Christmas Day thing?

Hey there: Please email me. Click the WWW below, then “About,” and send to my movie geek address. My wife couldn’t find your previous message and we’ve got something to tell you. Thx!

A couple of years ago, I did. I made all the usual plans to take the train to see my mother and her side of the family for the traditional back-biting, bitchiness and infighting that we know as “a family Christmas”.

Then at 7:00 am on the day, I called to say I was sick and going to spend the day in bed with the phones disconnected so I could sleep. Then I unplugged the phones and went to the beach.

Actually, probably the best Christmas Day I ever had. And I got to buy all my Christmas presents during the after-Christmas sales.

We stayed in and had a very small, very quiet Christmas. It helps that our nearest relatives are a couple of thousand miles away. They all get together in unhappy clumps and leave us out of it. Works for me.

The only problem is that when I call my mom with the obligatory Merry Christmas phone call, she insists on passing the phone around to everyone in the room. This year it didn’t go over so well since I had bronchitis and laryngitis. So I just croaked “Hello, I can’t talk much,” and got out of it. Managed to completely avoid talking to my nephew, who I’m sure was as glad as I was – I’ve seen the kid like three times in my life, what do we have to say to each other, especially with no warning and no preparation?

It shortened the call so much, I may have to try that again next year. :smiley:

I was at home all day by myself. About 6 PM I picked up number 2 son and we went to visit the rest of my family. We did all the gift exchanging and came home today. Next year will probably be the same unless Dr Phil says otherwise.