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Family Thanksgiving...

iGary

iGary

Guest
Original poster
May 26, 2004
19,580
7
Randy's House
I would assume that many people are heading home--or trying to--to spend Thanksgiving with families.

It seems Thanksgiving family get-togethers always have a family character or someone you (or others) moan about when the thoughts of being with them come around.

Also, there always seem to be family members that you can't wait to see...

I'll start.

I always look forward to seeing my sisters Jeanie, Cathy and Patty--there are two more, and they are great, but not nearly as much fun as the first three.

Nephews and nieces: Love to hang out with Patrick, Michael, Molly, Ben, Brian, Sophie and Taylor. There are 12 more, but not nearly as fun.

The step mum's brother-in-law, however gets on my nerves. He's a Catholic priest, and there is always this cold, but falsely warm vibe from him. We went for a walk with my step mum yesterday and he did everything he could not to walk next to me. As if teh gay would infect him.


So who is the train wreck in your family and who do you thoroughly enjoy?
 
My Grandma (Dad's mother) is a born-again christian who just can't seem to keep her thoughts to herself about the way I live my life (nothing major, I just don't believe in God, never say anything to her about it but she seems to think she can say all she wants to me) and now that she's sliding down the slippery slope of dementia it just gets worse.

My Dad's father (divorced from my Grandma) has Motor Neurone Disease and probably won't last much longer - all in all it's been a crap year for my Dad.

My mother's family just fight, there's no real problems it's just your standard family bickering - it's Dad's family that provide the fireworks.

But, we all get together, first here in the highlands for Mum's family then in Sydney for Dad's - always on the hottest day of the year and always in the only family member to not have air conditioning's home, oh and the two that always host are the most boring people in the world. They do jigsaw puzzles and folk dancing and wear fit-over old-person sunglasses.

Mind you his younger sister and her husband own one of the best proper Italian restaurants in Sydney so the food they bring to the get togethers is always sensational - one good thing about Christmas in the summer - amazing fruit, vegies and seafood.

Oh, I forgot to mention we don't have Thanksgiving down here so I used Christmas as my example.
 
All of my family live pretty close, so there's no one I don't see regularly. Everyone gets together for whatever the occasion is, there's too always too much food, plenty of alcohol, plenty of arguments which everyone gets over pretty quickly and so everyone just has a good time in general.
 
i love my grandpa on my mom's side. he is always telling everyone (including those he just met) he loves them, hugging them, telling them they're "beautiful people", etc.. he is just a loving, awesome old dude.

i have two uncles... who are particularly bad on the opposite side of things. the one is an alcoholic who always has a cup with him, but tries to hide it. in the past he's put the moves on a pretty young daughter (28ish, he was about 58 at the time) of a friend of my mom's... he also tried to open mouth kiss my mom (his sister) at new year's. the coolest was that when my mom recounted the story to us later (and my dad heard it for the first time), my small, normally quiet and subdued dad got all tough and acted like he would've punched him out. hah

the other bad uncle is an ex alcoholic, and has some plus sides (we talk about photography, and such things), but he has never been afraid to make racy comments around various girlfriends, or flirt with girlfriends of mine or other family members (again, probably 25-30 years his younger)... one time after a family reunion, we couldn't get my brother's car to start. so we were hanging around, pushing it trying to pop the clutch, etc... while 2 of us bros and a friend pushed it, my uncle yelled drunkenly "what are you all, a bunch of *******?!"

classic stuff
 
We don't have Thanksgiving, but I get on with all members of my extended family that I still see. Sadly since my Dad's brother died, his widow and three children completely distanced themselves from the rest of us and communication has now been totally lost. We think they've possibly moved to Cyprus, where his widow was originally from. It always gets mentioned when the rest of us get together though. They are very much missed.

My immediate family is far more a hit and miss affair. The family dynamic isn't a healthy one and seems to be based on putting others' down all the time. I grew tired of that game a long time ago, so when they start I make my excuses and prepare to leave. This unfortunately then starts an argument about how I apparently think I'm better than them, etc. etc. etc.

Favourite family characters:- my cousin Milena, Aunt Anita, and of course my Grandfather, who is now 85 and always bursts into tears when he sees us and tells me how much he loves me.
 
iGary said:
The step mum's brother-in-law, however gets on my nerves. He's a Catholic priest, and there is always this cold, but falsely warm vibe from him. We went for a walk with my step mum yesterday and he did everything he could not to walk next to me. As if teh gay would infect him.
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Touch him. Or leer at him. Make him more uncomfortable.

Wonder if it's guilt from the past?!?!?!

I'm a bad person




Ok, Thanksgiving at my mom's: small, big brother, mom and dad, my wife and two kids - that's it. I'm not particularly close to my big brother. He doesn't stay long because he has to go to his 'other' family, a friend from high school. I'll give him credit for being close to a friend for that long a time period, almost 30 years. No relationship with my dad. Fun with the kids, football, food!

My middle brother and his wife will be here Christmas. They're more fun.
 
iGary said:
We went for a walk with my step mum yesterday and he did everything he could not to walk next to me. As if teh gay would infect him.
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I hesitated quoting you, just in case. But then I realized that I'd set my firewall to block teh gay, so I should be okay. ;)

Since we're doing Thanksgiving with the wife's family, I'll stick with those in my answers...

iGary said:
So who is the train wreck in your family
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I think it's my wife's Uncle Bob. But what if it's really me?

iGary said:
and who do you thoroughly enjoy?
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That's a loaded question. :p Really, though, I enjoy my brother-in-law the most. Quite the character, and we always get into some good philosophical discussions.
 
Hmm...well, this year my side of the family is all getting together in California to see the new nephew my oldest sister had last month. Honestly, there's no one really that will be there that I dread seeing since we all get along pretty well. If I had to chose the one with the most character it may be my younger sister. She was the rebel for a while (I guess she still is, but not so much to the extreme anymore), and has caused my parents a lot of grief for various things. Even so, she's still fun to be around when we're all together, and I don't expect any awkward family conversations or brawls while we're all together. If I were to venture a guess at who the hubby looks forward to seeing the most it would be my older sister who is bringing him a 50mm lens for his Pentax. Either that or her two-year old daughter whom he thinks is the most adorable child ever and can do no wrong.... :rolleyes: :)

On the other hand, if we were spending the holiday with the hubby's family (which we will be for Christmas) I would have to say that my father-in-law is the person that could potentially get on my (and probably the hubby's) nerves. He and I get along well enough, but we really don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and I feel like we just get lectured about what we should be doing with various things in our lives whenever we see him. He means well, and I know he's just trying to be helpful, but sometimes it's just hard to swallow all the counsel he gives. I guess it's just hard for him to deal with the fact that all of his children have grown up and moved out of the house. My mother-in-law, however, is awesome and we get along swimmingly so I guess I'd have to say that I'd look forward to seeing her the most.
 
I don't think there is a train wreck (that I know of). This will be my first holiday with Lori's entire family. Everybody is pretty cool.

As for looking forward to seeing? One of Lori's sisters is bringing me her old 50/1.8, so that has me excited. Also, her daughter absolutely adores me. There is nothing better in life than a 2 yo that places you second only to the parents (and I can normally leapfrog my sister-in-law and come in second behind the brother-in-law). Gives me confidence that our kid will like me.
 
iGary said:
So who is the train wreck in your family and who do you thoroughly enjoy?
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:eek: I think I'm the train wreck in the family. Who do I enjoy... probably my older cousins since they've remained *almost* the same after the Incident™.
 
The holiday period from Thanksgiving through the New Years is the most stressful time of year for many folks.

Surprising, yet not surprising when you think about it.
 
floriflee said:
If I were to venture a guess at who the hubby looks forward to seeing the most it would be my older sister who is bringing him a 50mm lens for his Pentax. Either that or her two-year old daughter whom he thinks is the most adorable child ever and can do no wrong.... :rolleyes: :)
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nbs2 said:
I don't think there is a train wreck (that I know of). This will be my first holiday with Lori's entire family. Everybody is pretty cool.

As for looking forward to seeing? One of Lori's sisters is bringing me her old 50/1.8, so that has me excited. Also, her daughter absolutely adores me. There is nothing better in life than a 2 yo that places you second only to the parents (and I can normally leapfrog my sister-in-law and come in second behind the brother-in-law). Gives me confidence that our kid will like me.
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What did I tell you?? :D Am I good, or am I good??
 
devilot said:
Heh. That's not being aired publicly... I didn't even want to tell my fambly, no way I'm gonna share it w/ hundreds of people on MR. ;)
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You can't mention it and then not even give us a hint as to what happened. That's just cruel. :D
 
emw said:
I accept PM's by the way ;)

Oh, floriflee and nbs2 - that's very scary. If you guys didn't coordinate that on purpose, I'm impressed. :D
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Be impressed. I just know what he thinks (about some things, at least). :D
 
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