holiday angst?

[iris lilies]

Well, my attempt to dodge the annual 3 hour gift opening extravaganza didn't work. The hostess just moved the date so that Dh and I could attend.

So once again I will be forced to sit in a group of 5 childless adults, opening each gift one by one, touching and fussing and passing the opened gift with exclamations of surprise and pleasure part of the performance.

i do not exaggerate when I say that last year it took 2 hours and many minutes, maybe it was 2.5 hours, maybe it was 2.8'hours, but it was WELL over 2 hours.

Heres hoping I can find my head in this and figure out a way to stay sane. I am thinking of simply declaring it "time to go" after two hours, or falling asleep naturally, or the opposite of these : making a game of how long I can keep the unwrapping extravaganza going.

[Ultralight]

the annual 3 hour gift opening extravaganza

Tell me this is not reality!

[iris lilies]

Tell me this is not reality!

Yes, it's true. And not unusual. Over there on that Mr. Money Mustache site a guy talked about how he and his wife (no children) were forced into the same performance via Skype for a mother in law who thinks the Highlight of The Holidays is sloooooooooowwwww savoring of the unwrapping experience. His group was nearly same size as mine, all adults, no small children, and they sat for 3 hours in front of Skype app.

see, I keep mentioning small children because watching them open presents can be fun. But no fun for us! At least we can drink.

[nswef]

IrisLilies I think I'd have something to stop me from going. Stomach trouble because you just can't stomach it....Are they relatives?

[iris lilies]

Oh and UL, notice I'm not even bringing up the giant pile O'crap that results from this-- talking about it would make your head explode.

[iris lilies]

IrisLilies I think I'd have something to stop me from going. Stomach trouble because you just can't stomach it....Are they relatives?

No, our close friend. I dread it more and more each year, but I keep telling myself that it's the biggest night of the year for her, she will not change, and it doesn't kill me to do this. She is very generous to us and this shouldn't be that big of a deal.


Like I said, at least we can drink.

[Ultralight]

It just sounds so wacky.

[nswef]

Maybe you can look at it as an alien custom....pay attention to the bows, paper and think of all the time someone took to make it pretty. You're nicer than I am. I would just not go!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Get with the modern world, spend the entire time fiddling with your smart phone! Truthfully, if I absolutely couldn't get out of it, I would find a distraction, even if it was just food and drink

[Ultralight]

Maybe you can look at it as an alien custom...

This works well often times. I do it many times throughout the day for all sorts of alien (human?) customs!