Ode To My Family

I hate to say this out loud, and I will deny saying it to the grave... but I don't enjoy Ms. Thang's birthday parties. I enjoy celebrating her birthday, but I don't enjoy the actual party itself. Mom comes for her yearly visit, and usually our party is the first time she's seen my brothers and their respective others. Throw into that mix my dad and my in laws and it's a bit crazy. I don't much mind the catching up, except for that my MIL over exaggerates EVERYTHING and makes it sound so much worse than it is.. which bugs the crap out of me. I don't mind the "reunion" bit as much as I used too... except for the fact that my brothers do a lousy ass job of keeping in touch with my mom (except for one of them) and she hates it and it comes out in her tone/some of the discussions they have with each other.


I don't like loud-crowded-crazy places, and that is exactly what my house turns into. It's too chaotic and it makes me twitchy. It's one thing to have members of his family here, or my family.. but both our families are big and them all together under one roof is hard on me. I much more prefer it after the bulk of them have left, and only a few are still here. It's too much drama and it makes me tired. I found myself repeating to myself all day "only two more of these and you are done forever". I can't wait. In my house, your last family party is birthday number 12.

It partly makes me feel like a bad person. I've decided I don't care. Mom's visit is stressful enough on it's own, and adding the party into the mix just kicks it up about 10 notches. There were some good parts though. My brother brought his new (well, since winter) girlfriend, whom I really like and haven't seen in a while. Mr. Man took all the photos of the gift opening, and a bunch more outside before the gifts. So I got to see the party through his perspective, and enjoyed not being "the photographer" for a change. (he's pretty good). 2 of my brothers and 1 of his sisters and his brother were not here... so it was less chaotic than it would've been otherwise. This was Bailey's first party ,and she LOVED the tissue paper and gift bags. The most fun I had all day was watching her. Lastly, but certainly not least, it's over.