It's the most dramatic time of the year

This is the first time since 2005 that I have the opportunity to have Christmas at home.  In 2006 I had my first Christmas away from home.  Dave and I worked Christmas Eve at our retail jobs and then went to PF Chang's.  We stuffed ourselves full of Chinese food and sipped gin and tonics in the bar vowing to make that our new Christmas Eve tradition.  We then went back to our apartment and drank egg nog in front of the fire and exchanged gifts.  We then spent Christmas Day with his family exchanging gifts and stuffing ourselves full of ham and rolls and pie.  The following year was spent in our tiny apartment over in the Seattle area.  Our good friends, Christopher and Tiffin were not going home for the holiday either so the four of us ate, drank an inordinate amount of grown-up egg nog at our place on Chistmas Eve and did the same thing the following night at their place and finished out the night by going to see Sweeny Todd in downtown Seattle.  The year after that, R was only two and half months old, Dave spent all day Christmas Eve working and Christmas Day is kind of a blur.  Seattle was shut down that year by the huge snow storms.  Last year we did Christmas Eve at my aunt and uncle's house and my parents came over to join us and left that night.  We spend Christmas Day at our family friends' house stuffing ourselves full of Turkey and wine and watching Riley start to understand a little bit about the holiday. 

This year it seems like all hell is breaking loose.  My brother and sister in law recently purchased a house in Spokane and they are eager to show it off and had a wonderful Christmas Day event planned.  My sister in law's family celebrates on the Eve so when this idea came to fruition, they planned on Day, everyone else was planning on Eve and then celebrating with our other halves on Day.  There is so much drama boiling in me right now and so many thoughts and feeling I want to write down and scream from the mountin tops.  So many personal opinions I want to blurt out and so much nasty, disgusting word vomit I want to spew.  But in the name of keeping the peace, I will not.  There is a huge e-mail circulating debating the get together between all of us.  I am kind of pissed about someone else proposing an idea as new and their own that I have brought up several times throughout the years but I'll get over it.  In the name of love, peace and patience, we will have a family Christmas.  This will work out and R can have Christmas memories that he will visit fondly, and his mother will be cheerful and kind in his memories, not annoyed and acting touchy.  I have to remember that I will still get to sit in the living room on Christmas [Day] morning, listening to Nat King Cole and eating an ooey-gooey cinnamon bun as we all take turns opening gifts.  We will get to see all the family that we love and stuff ourselves full of delicious food before having to go back to reality.  And I guess that's what really matters. 

Now time to go throw in a load of whites and fold the other laundry.