The holiday post
Nov. 25th, 2003 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quesarahIn the previous post, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wafflelips wrote "Wait, I thought holidays were about drunken relatives, family angst, and finding a way to get away from the family."
Well, in my family they're about stressing over the preparation and diverting energy into making five times as much food as necessary. They're about everyone yelling at each other until the meal is over and they can find a place to sneak off. They're about praising family bonds then never making any attempt to connect on anything but the most base level. They're about feeling alone and like a stranger in a house full of people wiith the same surname.
Growing up, I never understood the point of Thanksgiving; after I stopped focusing on getting a bunch of loot for Christmas I realized I didn't understand it either. Everybody talked about family togetherness and spending time together during the holidays. I thought that was a load of bull. In my experience, it certainly was.
It wasn't until recently, when I found a new family of people that I really do connect with that I understood why people travel halfway across the country just to spend time during the holidays. I would travel anywhere to be with these people; I can't say the same for my siblings.
Tonight, two very dear friends will be arriving from Tucson. We'll spend the holiday together, reconnect, talk, eat, and enjoy each other's company. On Thursday I will be very thankful for them and for their love and support.
I get it now.
wafflelips wrote "Wait, I thought holidays were about drunken relatives, family angst, and finding a way to get away from the family."Well, in my family they're about stressing over the preparation and diverting energy into making five times as much food as necessary. They're about everyone yelling at each other until the meal is over and they can find a place to sneak off. They're about praising family bonds then never making any attempt to connect on anything but the most base level. They're about feeling alone and like a stranger in a house full of people wiith the same surname.
Growing up, I never understood the point of Thanksgiving; after I stopped focusing on getting a bunch of loot for Christmas I realized I didn't understand it either. Everybody talked about family togetherness and spending time together during the holidays. I thought that was a load of bull. In my experience, it certainly was.
It wasn't until recently, when I found a new family of people that I really do connect with that I understood why people travel halfway across the country just to spend time during the holidays. I would travel anywhere to be with these people; I can't say the same for my siblings.
Tonight, two very dear friends will be arriving from Tucson. We'll spend the holiday together, reconnect, talk, eat, and enjoy each other's company. On Thursday I will be very thankful for them and for their love and support.
I get it now.
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Date: 2003-11-25 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-25 04:55 pm (UTC)i completely understand what you both are saying about the whole "must buy presents, many many presents, that are perfect and expensive and will make me broke" thing. it's ridiculous...but hard to get away from. i've felt pressured into participating in gift exchanges and that bites. but it's a pretty foreign concept to not get gifts for people over the holidays. it's tricky. it's commercialized. it sometimes makes me want to puke a little. but the warm fuzzy spending time with friends..that i get and like a lot.