On the fourth day of Christmas

Okay, I skipped the first thing this year, the charity thing with the club. They said that it was the best ever, and I missed it. Whatever.

The thing with my Uncle G was nice. So I don't regret skipping the charity thing, cause I was knitting and doing other stuff to get ready for that. Though I do regret that I didn't get the knitting done while I was out of town, and then I might have had time for both things.

The third day of Christmas was Saturday, and that involved being at three different places to exchange gifts with different groups of people from the club. So there was the official gift exchange at one restaurant after lunch, and then there were more gifts exchanged among five of us at a different restaurant during dinner, and then there was a get together after dinner at someone's house, where I exchanged gifts with two more people.

I got home after three thirty Sunday morning.

Okay, I have now mostly recovered from Saturday.

Today is the fourth day of Christmas, which is no big deal, and we are going to visit my husband's brother. My husband has four brothers, two sisters, and some nephews, but he only cares about the one sister who lives out of state (and therefore we rarely see her and never have any holiday plans with her), and the one brother. We saw less and less of the others over the years, and after his mother died he decided he did not want to see the others at all.

We usually go to see this brother on the 23rd, but we are going on the 22nd this year to avoid seeing one of the sisters and a nephew and possibly one of the other brothers. Which is fine by me, as I have no interest in seeing them either, and now I have a day of rest between the fourth day of Christmas and the fifth day of Christmas.

The 23rd used to be a big deal, and a stressful day for me, but now it is just the one brother. And we usually don't even do anything for the one brother, we just go see him. We usually don't exchange presents with him. This makes me feel bad, a bit, but it is his brother, and he should work out those details, not me. So I don't bother with it anymore. If we are supposed to exchange gifts, someone needs to tell me. Or my husband needs to do the shopping for that, not me. So last year we were given some small token gifts, and we didn't give anything in return. We don't have anything for him this year either, or at least, not that I know about, so I don't expect he will get us anything, but he might again get us something small, or he might bake something for us.

Years ago they used to have the big family gathering on the 23rd, and I wouldn't be told that we were going until a few days before, and I couldn't get ready in time, much less be expected to get gifts for everyone, even if I had the money, which usually I did not. Not counting the sister that was out of state, and a brother and his wife who was out of state at the time, there were three brothers, a sister, their mother, a sister-in-law, a nephew, and two more nephews that might be there or might not, and the wives of the nephews that might be there or might not, and a son of one of the nephews that might be there or might not. And they exchanged gifts, but it wasn't one of those things where you draw names or anything like that, there were gifts for everyone. So that was seven gifts for the people we knew would be there, and then maybe five more if the others showed up. One year I was told that three of the others would be there, so I got them something, but then it turned out that the other nephew and his wife also showed up, and I didn't have anything for them.

The first year we did this I was given about a week's notice, but then I wasn't told there would be gifts exchanged until about the 20th or the 21st.

I think the family had stopped having this gathering a few years before we got married, but my husband forgot and sort of invited himself over, and then they had to do it cause he was expecting it. And then they did this for several more years, and then one year the brother who hosted the gathering announced that he and his family were going on a cruise or something that year, so no gathering on the 23rd. And then there was some other excuse the year after that, and then there were no more of the big family gatherings on the 23rd.

Without the big family gathering at the one brother's house, we still tried to do something with his mom and the one sister and the one nephew and two of the brothers. And then we saw less and less of them, though he did try to see his mother once in a while and he does still like to see the one brother. Then after his mom died he just didn't want to see anyone but the one brother. He avoids the rest of them, unless maybe he hears that the out-of-state sister might be in town, but we haven't seen her either since the death of his mother.

So now it is just the one brother, and people we are trying to avoid.

Anyway, most of my day will be spent either with this brother, or in the car driving to and from the brother's house.

So that leaves Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas with whoever happens to want to get together and maybe see grandma, and then New Year's Eve with my friends. All I have to do is wrap four gifts by the 24th and hopefully finish two scarves by the 31st.