Let the annual Christmas Guilts begin!

I don't know if anyone else experiences this but every year we go through a rolling drama with my husband's family that we affectionately call "the Christmas Guilts".

It begins with the gifts, we decided to approach the family a few years ago about how expensive the gift giving had become and asked if we could draw names. Of course they threw a fit, made us feel the Scrooge and insisted their teenage children should get gifts from the entire family. They said we could draw names as adults with a $100 limit, please! The lists are made and sent to us (we do not have children), long story short it continues to be an issue.

The Christmas visits. We prefer to visit the family in the summer, we spend a week with each side (they live in close proximity). It works for mine, his never. The guilt about not being "a family" began yesterday in earnest.

I actually like Christmas, I love the colors, the music, the smells, the happy faces. I HATE the commercialization of it, and the forced family stuff. Families who are not close are expected to become the Waltons for a week every year....never works well.

Thanks for letting me vent !