Thursday ...

and I can't think of a cutesy blog title. Ah well, there's more on my mind than blog titles.

Christmas. 'Tis the Season ... dysfunctionality at it's finest.

And for once it's not me or my offspring that's causing such a stir ... LOL.

Mom's mad at the "M" cousins, Silly's upset with Cousin Dear and the "M" cousins .. yup, 'tis the season.

Of course, I didn't help by calling Mom to read to her a status update Cousin Dear put on my facebook wall. It read something like "So...I forgot to pass this along...was talking to J, D, and K (aka the "M" cousins)...each family member who has a young child...should bring a present for "their own" child to open Christmas Day at my house....I'm sure Aunt Silly, your mom, and maybe M will do something if they so choose. Please pass this on to Alien and DIL (although I don't know if DIL is coming here)..... So...no buying for anyone but one's own child/children...." Okay, so that was exactly how it read (copy and paste, gotta love it) ... and yes, names were changed to protect the guilty.

So, why are Mom and Silly so pissed off? Because it had been suggested early that the kids do a gift exchange, bring one gift for each child you have (one kid = one gift, two kids = two gifts, etc) ... and the kiddies would swap gifts with their cousins. But of course, no one wanted to do that. So ... the "M" cousins think it's better to bring a gift for your own kid so they can open it there. Hello? How stupid!! The gift starts out at your house, gets opened (maybe parts get lost) and then you have to take it BACK home again? And it's pissed them off because the "M" family once again calls the shots, because they don't want to buy gifts for the other little kids, yet the four adults of the "M" family have never hosted a family holiday meal, they don't bring a dish, don't clean up and don't contribute to the costly holiday dinner hosted elsewhere.

On the other hand, Mom's happy that she doesn't have to buy any more gifts .. in fact she picked one from a dozen or so gifts she'd bought for all the kiddies and will give that to Grandson. Other than that, she'll be taking all the other gifts back to the store as soon as possible.

Mom and Silly are so pissed off that they claim this is the last of the family meals. No more Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. Well, as long as the "M"s are concerned.

Damned soap opera, I tell you ...

As long as we're on the Christmas Soap Opera box ... soap box, get it ... There is NO tree at my house. I "won" ... or I should say that DIL refused to clean up her mess, got mad at me in the process, and gave up bitching about wanting the tree put up. Funny thing is, she still has her messes to clean up, but now she won't have the reward of seeing the pretty tree up this year.

Funnier yet, is that once they move out, I will be putting up the Christmas tree for all to enjoy during the holiday season.

DIL had been telling Single Son how she's fed up with me not cleaning up the kitchen. He laughed ... told her "but she does clean up, just not after others". Yup, we're back to that ... her not cleaning up after she uses the kitchen (or bathroom, or living room, or ... any room for that matter). I've given her warning that on the Monday after Christmas I will be taking my house back, and that if she has anything important that she wants that's not put away in a safe place she may be at risk of losing it. I've even provided a folder for her for Grandson's school stuff and a place to store it - let's see if she uses it. If not, I don't care if it's important or sentimental or not, it will be thrown away!! I'm tired and I want my home back!!

I did mention something to Married Son about it, and he said, "is that a good idea, Mom, you know that'll tick her off". I told him I know it will but too bad. His response? "Good, maybe it'll make her mad enough to move out". Yup, he's fed up with her crap, too. He's talking about the big D once again ... I wonder if he'll actually go through with it in 2011. Then again, if he does that will mean he won't be moving out of this house any time soon - he'll be yet another divorced kid who moves back in with Mommy. Oh wait, he can't move back in, he's ALREADY here! Damn.

On the bright side, I'm only four years away from being able to move into senior housing.

Dear Santa. It's me again. I know it's last minute, and probably too late for this Christmas but I want to let you know that what I really really really want for Christmas is an empty nest. Maybe this is enough warning so that by next Christmas I can have my wish granted? If you can't grant me an empty nest, can you at least give me a somewhat emptier nest? I think you know which "Birdie" needs to go and which can stay indefinitely. Thank you Santa. P.S. I read where there are certain people who think you're too fat and send a bad example to the children of the world. You're the most generous person I know (next to my folks) and don't deserve the bad wrap because they're narrow minded fat-phobics. Make sure those fools get rotten carrots in their stocking ... they don't even deserve coal!!