((((Everyone)))) and here. pass around the veggies and dip. I think that if it wasn’t for singing “Silent Night” by candlelight at the late service at church on Christmas Eve, I’d never get that old Christmas feeling, and even then I’m surrounded by people who care about me, but not for me.
If I had the time or money, I’d try to follow Kalhoun’s advice, because I know giving and helping is the only way to make you forget your own troubles, but I’m trapped helping other people find gifts for their nearest and dearest.
Awww… Aries28… that is incredibly nice! It really makes me feel good to know that there are folks out there that would open up their homes to what amounts to the next best thing to a stranger… and I really couldn’t get any stranger (sorry)
I’ll email… whatever else may occur, we really DO need to have a Doper-Style Alabama Jubilee sometime relatively soon…
Thanks again for the warm wishes and the gracious invite!
I don’t think anybody here could get any stranger.
I won’t be by myself, but it’s going to be weird with my brother not being here; he’s off being professionally tormented (AF basic training) and doesn’t graduate for a couple more weeks. So it’s the parental units and me. I expect it’ll be a real quiet day. Especially for me, if the box from Amazon that I’m not allowed to open has what I think it has in it…
Ugh. I don’t celebrate Christmas; I have to spend the day revising for my Biology exams in January. I live with my parents and grandmother. My parents are not talking to each other at present, because of my grandmother (I don’t know the details) and besides, my grandmother disapproves of me on every level. I can’t lean on my friends as I usually do because they celebrate Christmas.
In comparison to others in this thread, this is completely lame-assed. I’m sorry.
RSVP? No, I figured I’d just show up if nothing better came along. After all, what’s a pity party without some unexpected-guest angst?
One thing that might cheer you up is to go over to the nearest nursing home, and spend an hour or so talking to one of the residents. There are lots of people in nursing homes who either don’t have any family, or whose family tends not to come see them. Having someone spend some time with them, just because, could make their whole holiday season.
For my part, one of my oldest friends is apparently no longer speaking to me because I told her to quit addressing cards and stuff to someone who doesn’t exist and expecting me to open them. Oh well, I’ve apologized for hurting her feelings, and if she chooses not to accept the apology, there’s not a hell of a lot more I can do. (Well, I suppose I could grovel, but that ain’t gonna happen.)
I won’t see any of my family for Christmas, and I’ll only get to see them for a couple of days at New Years. Those couple of days will probably be the last time I see one of my favorite uncles; he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer and given a six month prognosis five months ago. If he’s feeling too sick to come over for New Years or to have visitors, I might not get to see him at all.
People keep badgering me about what I want for Christmas, and I don’t know what to tell them. The only thing I truly want is to go home, and I can’t have that.
I actually wish I was staying home for the holidays myself. I’d rather hang around and watch movies than go down to my mom’s. She broke her hip recently, after recovering from having a pacemaker implanted due to heart palpitations, and only talks about dieing. Her voice is on the verge of breaking. Every time I talk to her, she says “This is the beginning of the end.” She’s got her funeral planned out and wants me to be the executor of her estate when she kicks the bucket.
My 2 older brothers, who are 50 & 52, still live at home. They don’t speak to each other. One has no social skills, so he can’t hold down a job. He is completely out of touch with reality. He once remarked about how China is going to start experimenting with making men pregnant. He said he heard it on Paul Harvey. And now for the rest of the story…
The other brother is losing his job after the plant he’s worked at for 20 years closes down next month. It’s a textile plant, so of course he’ll have no desirable job skills if he decides to find new work. Both brothers are gray-haired threadbare clothes-wearing hermits whose rooms are stacked to the ceilings with old papers and junk. Mom thinks they’re both bums and plans to have them evicted after she dies. She doesn’t think either is actually capable of living on their own.
Since mom is incapacitated, there’s no Christmas decorations and she can’t make dinner. I’m going to try to throw something together. As soon as I can figure out how to progress beyond opening a can of cranberry sauce, we should be in business.
