My Monday Thoughts – Party Pooper

Thomas Kinkade

 

I love Christmas time!  And so does my mother.  She tries so hard to always make our family Christmas party nice and fun but, unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way.  This really makes me feel bad for her.  All of the effort she puts into trying to think up games and stuff for us to play and half the time no one will play with her except the same hand full of us every year.  This year was not all that different except I was not there early enough to join in.  Since I still was not feeling all that well, I didn’t want to expose my parents to getting sick so I came later in the day.  The games were already over and I don’t know who played and who didn’t this time.  But I think there must have been some participation because mom was in a good mood when Mark and I walked in the door.

 

Later on, Mom pulled Sara and I aside to tell us her plan.  She said that she was going to make everybody sing for their present.  She was going to start with Sara and told her, “When I point at you, start singing ‘Jingle Bells’ and then stop when I point at you again.  Then I’ll point to the next person and they will have to pick up where you left off.  They will probably all get mad at me for it but I don’t care.”

 

We started laughing and said okay.  I told mom that it would be pretty but I was willing to do it.  So when we all went downstairs to open presents, they started with the great-grandchildren’s gifts first.  They are all too little to participate in the singing.  So when that was done, mom told everybody what they had to do.

 

My sister, who is 16 years younger than me and the baby of the family in more ways than one, started objecting – loudly!  She told mom that she wanted to know what the gift was first because it may not be worth having to sing for it!!  She went on and on and on about it until mom got mad and just started practically throwing everybody their cards. (she started just giving checks to the adults a few years back instead of buying presents)  Then she stormed upstairs to start setting the table. 

 

Sara and I went up after her, as did my eldest daughter and her boyfriend (whom I think might just be as good a catch for her as Mark was for me)  and we all started helping mom get ready for dinner.  I went over and hugged her and told her that I was sorry about Kate ruining her fun.  She said that it wasn’t our fault and not to feel bad, but she was hopping mad still.

 

I don’t know why my sister felt it necessary to have to act like that but that’s just how she is and why we don’t get along.  We only see each other a handful of times a year which is fine with me.  She treats Mark, me and my children like pond scum and it will come back on her some day.  Her husband is so nice too, I feel sorry for him.  He seems to me a lot like my Mark, his name is Mark too – isn’t that odd?   Every Mark that I have known was a nice guy.

 

We all ignored her after that, and by we I mean just about everybody there, and she knew that she had gone too far. 

 

Other than that it was a good evening of family fun!

 

Peace, love and blessings,
Terri