So my announcement just didn’t go over all that well with my in laws.
But it at least shouldn’t have been a surprise.
For years, I’d been broaching the subject of having Christmas at our house. This was not a welcome topic at all so I got full on crickets as a response. I even tried to discuss it thoughtfully with my wife but she’s sort of hamstrung by her parent’s reaction to anything. So this year, I’ll be spending Christmas at home with my own thermostat setting please and thank you. My wife and I are the only one of her siblings that don’t have children. We live in the south where the heat pump just doesn’t get much of a workout in the winter. Conversely, her parents live way up north where the odds are pretty good that there will be a while Christmas. And the odds are dead solid that the gas furnace at my in laws will be cranking. I mean, like cranking to the point that I have to crack a window in the guest bedroom just to get a bit of relief for a minute. Well, we’ve gathered there for the last 15 years. It was cool to watch the kids when they were little but that’s long over. So, I’m just done with that whole trip. It eats all of my vacation time for the holidays and I’d like to have some of that for me and hopefully me wife. I’ll be home for the holidays this year and I’m happy to host anybody else from that crowd that would like to join me.