Whoah, Christmas!

Things have finally settled down enough around here that I feel like I can write about our Christmas without having total melt-down of incoherent babbling.

Our Christmas sucked, yo.

Well, but it's all fine now, and in the end, all is good. So, not a total loss.

What follows is for my own records/therapeutic purposes. Not exactly gripping blog fodder, so I understand if you stop now.

It all started when my mom invited her boyfriend's daughter's family to stay at her house. OUR house. For just one night. Which quickly became two, then three nights. So "step-family" arrived, two little girls and a brand new puppy in tow. And they just totally moved into my mom's house.

Here's where I call them a not-very-nice-name. You guys, they were total rednecks. Tossing their 8 week old puppy (that they'd had for 5 days) out into the snowbank and then acted TOTALLY CONFOUNDED when it didn't go potty. Never putting their OBVIOUSLY VERY TIRED child to bed, but instead letting her run until she dropped, exhausted, sometime around midnight.

Yelling- one at the top of the stairs, the other at the bottom- while my kids were in bed for the night. Thundering up and down the stairs, slamming doors, locking the puppy in it's kennel where it LOST IT'S MIND yelping in desperation- while my kids were in bed.

So? Frustrating, annoying, and not what any of us were ready for.

THEN.

Oh, yes, there's a THEN.

We went to my dad's for Christmas Eve. We opened gifts, shared a meal, put the kids in pretty dresses, and headed off to a tiny country church in the woods, for candle light service.

Sounds lovely, right?

Well, it should have been. But as we were leaving the house (literally, everyone else was waiting in their vehicles), my dad's girlfriend basically verbally attacked me about how I am unkind, unthoughtful, and inconsiderate to her. She accused me of being a sneak, a spy, and thief, and a liar.

I am not any of those things, and I have not done anything mean or unkind to her. (Um, OBV. I hope.)

The details are long and boring, even to me, but suffice to say, I was very upset. When I tried to defend myself, she jumped in her vehicle and refused to talk to me.

Cut to the church parking lot. I was very upset and crying. She came over to me and put her arm around me and said "Let's go talk in my vehicle and work things out". My dad ushered everyone else into church, and I climbed into her car.

Where she came absolutely UNGLUED.

Basically, the woman is crazy and for some reason has decided to make me the Family Villain. I was so upset that I felt sick. Being accused of a litany of things that you are 100% innocent of does that to a person.

The part that really sucked was that she has my dad's ear. And while I am really not that concerned what SHE thinks of me, I don't need her coming between my dad and me.

She also proceeded to call my Grandma and my aunt and tell them "her side" of the story, wherein I "was a total rude bitch" to her. Which, even in the heat of the argument, I WASN'T.

In the end, we got everything all straightened out. I've spoken to my family; they believe me. I talked to my dad, so he's at least heard my side of the story. We all agree that we are seeing a side of her that we haven't seen before.

I haven't spoken to HER again since the church parking lot, but I don't have anything left to say to her. Furthermore, anything I DO say will only be turned against me. When someone decides that you are evil, there is no convincing them otherwise.

Seester, David, and my youngest brother also were rock stars through it all- defending my position, and talking endlessly with me about it all, psycho analyzing the whole situation.

Christmas Eve was a total bust, and I was sick about it most of Christmas Day. But then that day ended with The World's Longest Game of Apples to Apples, which was really fun. Today, after talking with my dad, grandma, and aunt, I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

(On top of all of it, there was a MAJOR BLIZZARD here, and approximately 100% of the roads that we need to take home were closed, forcing us to stay here an extra day. Also, tomorrow at noon David's family is having their Christmas, but since we are 550 miles away, we will be missing that too.)

The kids were not privy to all of the conflict that surrounded them. The lights, gifts, blizzard, and extra people around were distractions enough. I got some good bonding time in with my sibs, we had some good laughs, and I feel the whole shee-bang is ending on a positive note.

I debated about sharing all of this here because I'm not one to bitch about Christmas, and I certainly don't want to dump icy buckets of rainwater on anyone's Holiday Parade.

But alas, here we are, with more clarity about ourselves and each other than we had a week ago.

Peace, friends!