Need I say more about this? I mean, is there anything else
to say but even though Primo just spent several days visiting them that Sly and
Doris are very upset that he is not planning to spend Christmas with them? That
even though he went 20 years of not spending Christmas with them and they are
used to his not spending Christmas with them that now that he is not married to
ex-wife anymore that his default should be that he goes to their house whenever
they want him there?
Primo tells them nope, he was just there and he is not
traveling again.
Primo: They didn’t say anything about your coming with me.
They want me to come for Christmas without you.
Me: I guess that would be OK. I am not used to spending Christmas with you.
Primo: No, it wouldn’t. They're not used to spending it with me, either! I want to spend Christmas with you.
I don’t want to spend it with them. I don’t even want to spend it with them if
you are with me. We were just there and they were not nice to you.
In their defense (did i really type that?) ... parents are totally weird about Christmas. My mother always (until she died) wanted me "home" for Christmas, even tho the last five places she lived were places where i had never lived, hence, not at all "home" to me. I could never make her understand that my husband and i constituted a "family" who should decide for themselves what to do at Christmas. Just weird.
ReplyDeleteI can totally imagine wanting my adult kids (who are currently one and five) home for Christmas. I cannot imagine actually expecting them. Inviting, sure, but they'll have their own lives, and it's often easier to coordinate a nice visit when it isn't a busy holiday packed with other activities.
ReplyDeleteApropos of several posts ago when you were Reading the Newspaper Rudely, once many years ago when I was home from college for a holiday, I was reading a book while my parents watched TV. I had just thought to myself, "It's so nice to spend a quiet-ish evening together," when abruptly my mom muted the television, turned to me, and said, "Aren't you even going To TALK to me?" Completely floored, I said, "Um...have a nice semester?" (she was a teacher)
Spoiler: That wasn't the right answer.
Offspring is 17 and a fair bit now, so we are having Talks about when he goes away and how holidays will work. I am resigned that he will likely not want to visit us always, and will eventually want to make new traditions with his Special Someone. (I am careful to only use Current Girlfriend's name, because suggesting that it won't always be her starts an argument I can't possibly win. And hey, maybe, right?) He says to me, "Yeah, but I can't imagine anyone ever making Christmas as good as you do, so why would we not just come here and borrow yours?" He's not wrong: my Christmas is epic because I do it up big. But that's the point: the only possible lure of leaving his actual home and coming aaallll the way out to wherever we are will be that we make it nice and relaxed and inviting for him and his family.
ReplyDelete