Holiday Reality

[Tryharder62]

Getting together with family you normally don't see much of throughout the year because you don't usually get along.

 

[thør]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/51676356feb019c51f9d060b529e5a96/43f2f613d632f8b6-a1/s1280x1920/4c2cfcdb45fe479d50b8e1e0f431fedc62995f9a.png

Honey, you go and see them, I have to work.

 

[seeshelly]

My own holidays work just fine

I think that socially orchestrated holidays are all group-think gimmicks. I feel no need to eat a Turkey because everyone eats Turkey on a certain day. And I sure don't feel like I need to be told when to give thanks. I don't have a problem with other people marching to the beat of that drum but I think most people don't really know why they do much of anything. If there are told it is the thing to do on a certain day they just do it. I enjoy being free from the herd and just having whatever holiday or vacation or party we want to have as friends family and loved ones when we are moved to do it.

 

[Ann_Tagonist]

I accept getting up at the crack of dawn to cook a perfect turkey that naturally cooks at different rates internally to serve to people who can't be expected to show up on time as a challenge to be met.

 

[Tryharder62]

Honey, you go and see them, I have to work.

Don't know if I could do your job but maybe we could switch. How long does it take to get from Illinois to Alaska? Maybe I'll just send them on a trip. Just KIDDING! Sorry you have to work.

 

[dolf]

I feel completely justified in my policy of deducting Xmas from this year if I feel like I had too much last year.

 

[oggbashan]

In the UK at least, the Christmas/New Year break is a prime time for suicide.

 

[pantalaimonlyra]

Ah, the joys of little to no extended family.

I just have to put up with my dad bitching that we aren't eating early enough.

 

[coati]

My family of origin is mostly either dead or can't travel any more, but the next generation is fun to be with during these fall/winter holidays, especially the little kids.

And I actually like turkey.

 

[sally_sparrow]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/51676356feb019c51f9d060b529e5a96/43f2f613d632f8b6-a1/s1280x1920/4c2cfcdb45fe479d50b8e1e0f431fedc62995f9a.png

Honey, you go and see them, I have to work.

One of my favorite movies to watch year round. I don't look forward to the holidays but I don't hate them. A lot has changed in my family over this last year so I am sure drama will appear sooner rather than later

 

[oggbashan]

Ah, the joys of little to no extended family.

I just have to put up with my dad bitching that we aren't eating early enough.

Send him to the nearest bar or public house...

 

[oggbashan]

My family of origin is mostly either dead or can't travel any more, but the next generation is fun to be with during these fall/winter holidays, especially the little kids.

And I actually like turkey.

Me too. I like brussels sprouts as well.

A family tradition in recent years is to go on a Santa Special on our local preserved railway but this year our oldest grandchild has decided that as a teenager (birthday on Christmas Eve when she will be 13) she is too old to see Santa. She is probably right but since her first birthday the railway people have given her a Christmas present, a birthday present and the whole trainload of passengers have sung 'Happy Birthday' to her. At 13 that would be embarrassing!

 

[Lorilei]

Getting together with family you normally don't see much of throughout the year because you don't usually get along.

Yeah, I don't do that.

 

[oggbashan]

Back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, the extended family gathering had a requirement for performance art. Almost the whole family was musical so 1890s ballads were sung - Pale hands beside the Shalimar, The Three Gendames etc. One branch of the family performed as a string quartet.

I was totally unmusical so I performed recitations like The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God, or Casabianca.

Like me, one of my younger cousins hated performing but her mother dressed her as Shirley Temple to sing The Good Ship Lollipop. She would be so nervous she was often sick after performing yet her mother insisted on it year after year.

In retrospect ignoring me and my cousin's enforced turns it was an enjoyable event but the both of us would rather have been an audience not participants.


Casabianca by Felicia Hemans:

The boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck,
Shone round him o’er the dead.

Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
As born to rule the storm;
A creature of heroic blood,
A proud, though childlike form.

The flames rolled on – he would not go,
Without his father’s word;
That father, faint in death below,
His voice no longer heard.

He called aloud – ‘Say, father, say
If yet my task is done?’
He knew not that the chieftain lay
Unconscious of his son.

‘Speak, father!’ once again he cried,
‘If I may yet be gone!’
– And but the booming shots replied,
And fast the flames rolled on.

Upon his brow he felt their breath
And in his waving hair;
And look’d from that lone post of death,
In still yet brave despair.

And shouted but once more aloud,
‘My father! must I stay?’
While o’er him fast, through sail and shroud,
The wreathing fires made way.

They wrapped the ship in splendour wild,
They caught the flag on high,
And streamed above the gallant child,
Like banners in the sky.

There came a burst of thunder sound –
The boy – oh! where was he?
Ask of the winds that far around
With fragments strewed the sea!

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
That well had borne their part,
But the noblest thing which perished there,
Was that young faithful heart.