I seem to have broken up with my family, what there is of it (mother and sister). I'd stopped calling, except for specific occasions (birthdays and holidays), because they'd never call me and, when I called, weren't all that interested in letting me say anythng. Now, I haven't heard from them for a while; the last time was my sister telling me that my mother was in the hospital (again) and that she was getting less and less in touch mentally.

I'd planned on not visiting them at Christmas - I'd skipped the past two years, once because of an injury that made driving impossible and last year because I was recovering from cataract surgery - and it's always been fairly miserable.

I'm feeling a bit adrift, but I'm looking forward to being able to sleep in my own bed, be comfortable, go to my church, and generally have a low-key, no family hassles holiday. But it's still kind of weird.

I support your non-miserable choice in its entirety, Toddson. My mother has pity freakouts if for some reason I don't come home (if all three of them aren't there, I usually don't), so sometimes she sends me a family member. That is useful, because I don't cook for my mother or sister.

But when there is no family, I find Xander/Zeppo useful to express myself: "I like the quiet." I definitely can find value in that option, and I hope you do too.

You might not be able to choose family, exactly, but you can choose not to.

I think I'd take that as the opportunity to go hang out at the local theatre and watch ALL THE MOVIES.

Time to squee! I received another gift from my C. Kringle. I've wanted/needed one of these things forever: [link] I have way too many pairs of earrings. Some people shop for shoes, I shop for earrings. No more tangled hoops and wires stuck inside other earrings for me ever again! Thank you!

Another anonymous package for me today. A new pink cover for my phone. For this one, it would be great if someone could verify to someone else on the list that this was from my secret santa. it seems a certain boy had told the grandparents to get it for me as his gift, so there may be some distraughtness here that it was sent to our house.

also if anyone sent my child an anonymous iTunes gift card, verification on that would be awesome.

I'd like to volunteer to be a stand in if anyone doesn't get gifted this year. I'm such a slacker that I missed even the slacker Santa.

I got a package I believe is from my Secret Santa, should I open it?

Go for it! I opened every single one of mine as they came. I like the way it draws things out; I find it more suspenseful. But you may like hoarding your presents to open them all at once to bask in that feeling of "it's all mine, MINE."

For me it depends on if there are other things on Christmas. I like opening the gift from here as they come since my Christmas day is busy, but everyone's isn't.

I opened the card so THANK YOU BONNNY!

But the packages are wrapped so nice in this pretty purple paper that I think I'm going to wait and enjoy looking at them on my bookshelf for awhile.