Sunrazor, you may have already suggested it, or it may not be feasible at all, but…
Have you considered getting your wife a puppy for Christmas? I wouldn’t normally suggest it, but you’re obviously responsible people who got multiple children to adulthood. Your wife is grieving their absence. Perhaps something warm and wriggly in her arms would cheer her up.
Locate some Jewish friends. Based on my personal experience, they’ve all memorized what’s still open on Christmas Day, and where to get the best Chinese food. 
I’m with you, though. I can handle not having a million people around for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is tough. Usually I, being a single studenty type, volunteer to work so that other people don’t have to. My dysfunctional family will be several hours away, getting drunk and backstabbing one another with gossip, while I convince myself that monitoring a computer lab really is the lesser of two evils.
At least go off to Mass, even if you don’t have yourself a dinner or a party. Everyone’s there for the same reason, and you’ll have lots of people to talk to as you mill around afterwards.
May it be your most awesomest Christmas ever. All Holidays should be spend eating out of cardboard boxes and ending with fortune cookies.
AAAAAIIIEIEIEIIIAIAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
I looked at that!! Oh, ghods, the pain!!! Someone give me a spoon so I can gouge out my mind’s eye and not see that any more!!!
(trying to scrub the image from Shirley’s link out of her head)
Hugs to all who will be having a crappy Christmas this year. Mine seems relatively benign by comparison. Xmas Eve with my folks and the Princess, Xmas Day visiting the ex’s folks; I still get along with them, and hopefully will continue to do so, if not because of their son, at least for the sake of their granddaughter.
On an unrelated note, this year I feel rather wistful at the prospect of finding mistletoe at some point in my holiday meanderings, as I no longer have anyone to kiss underneath it. 
I’m. Uh. Well, my god. How am I supposed to enjoy Florida with battery acid in my eyes?? :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Amazing that you wrote this. I’ve been pricing packages. I think I need to be nice to me for a few days. I cannot IMAGINE what Florida would cost me through Christmas. But I’m looking.
Even if I had a torso and glutes that permitted contemplating that bodily … thing, I wouldn’t risk it. I mean, why fly only to be barred from every beach in the state?
I’ll stick to my nice boring swim trunks, thank you. Wish me luck. I gotta get outa here…
Thanks for the very kind thoughts, folks. Sounds like we’re all doing good things to deal. And yeah, getting the wife to realize that she defines her life, not the kids is going to take some time.
Might I suggest a tribble ?
When my wife and I were first married, we did not have any holiday traditions so we started our own. We would invite our friends that were alone for the holidays over for the celebration.
You can probably find 3 or 4 people at your church that don’t have anywhere to go on this holiday. Invite them over and you will be amazed at just how good a time can be had.
Better than spending Christmas here. I’ve spent the last several years here. Inshallah, this will be my last Christmas in the Gulf… I don’t get my trip back to see family until mid January.
Like mixing oil and water. The only members of our respective families who got along at all were my wife’s father and my mother. Dad and the MIL barely speak when they see each other.
I think about you guys and your families every single day. I would do anything – ANYTHING – to bring you all home next week, if possible. I admire your uncomplaining service to your country and countrymen, I am deeply grateful for all you do, and I want nothing more than to have you home as soon as possible. Please be safe.
Hello, I don’t mean for my first post to be such a downer, but the whole Christmas thing sucks big time for me. You see, my oldest son was killed last September 3 weeks after he was married. He was the original Mr. Christmas, and that is just another point in the long list of “Things I miss the Most”.
My other son works on a cruise ship, last year I spent Christmas with him in the Caribbean, so it didn’t even feel like Christmas, but this year it isn’t going to work out, so I am going to escape to a friend’s place in North Carolina. I do have a great family, but I cannot bear the whole “Merry Christmas” bullshit.
There is always someone with a sadder story, I just try to keep my head down and get by.
