you're home for the holidays: irritating relatives, enforced sing-alongs, and furtive nips of liquour when bringing out the trash

holy shit Tracer, glad you're OK

plz don't get lost in the wild for Christmas :o

yeah :(

my son was considerably less panicky then we were, partic when the sun went down. extended family full of all kinds of knowledgeable, reassuring information once we'd gotten back. for instance, there are a few ruined stone barns out there. so we could have found shelter if we'd needed it. you know if push came to shove. and they would have called they police when it got dark and they've got a helicopter and dogs and everything. so really it would have been fine in the end. absolutely ANYTHING instead of apologising and giving my wife a hug. just incredible. but it will never ever come. and she's got to figure out a way to accept that and forgive them. for this and for every other thing like this since she was a girl.

yeah jeez tracer glad u guys are ok

oh tracer, massive hugs to you and your wife

thank you :)

Christ, glad you’re all safe.

What an ass. Glad to hear you and yours are ok, TH.

nothing like a little primal fear to get the holidays going! we've all been hearing how they've reintroduced brown bears to the Pyrenees over the past few years. farmers hate them because they apparently eat the odd sheep or five. there are supposedly now 14 in this part of the mountains. at one point after the sun goes down my 8 y o says "Daddy I don't want to go to sleep out here and get eaten by a bear" and I'm about to automatically say, c'mon don't be silly, that's not going to happen, but i think about it for a second and i think to myself "me neither"

why are you still visiting these people?!

I cooked a big Hannukah dinner Monday night and a big Christmas Eve dinner last night, and now I'm exhausted. Luckily my in-laws are in charge of Christmas dinner, so all I have to do is sit here and take it easy today.

Tracer I can safely say that your in-laws are the worst people alive

My in-laws (also French)are pretty bad but this is some next level sociopathic shit.

every bit of tv & radio xmas entertainment has jokes about families having arguments at xmas and my family never do, and it's just sort of embarrassing to watch / listen with them while they make this apparently relatable reference

^^^ cosigned (by someone whose family constantly try to passive-aggressively micromanage each other all year round)

my youngest brother just deliberately through a system of condescending loans, allowances and 'gifts' made a game of monopoly last 3 hours when he should have just won after 1. he is a chaos lord. at least he was quite droll about it

i now own a carrom board, who will challenge me

Pretty much why monopoly is the worst game

it is an accurate simulation of capitalism at least - it's obvious pretty much instantly who's going to win, and then you spend what feels like a lifetime going through the charade of making out like any other result is possible

The history of Monopoly / Landlord's Game is fascinating if anyone doesn't already know about it.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-landlords-game/

Geez, Tracer. That sounds awful.

Commiserations, Tracer. And congrats for not completely losing your shit at FIL.

My mom asked my fam in a call with my 17 y/o— who is an old, wise soul— “what are you all doing for the Eve?” And the kid answered “Christmas Eve is when we all go out to dinner at a Syrian restaurant and get in a massive fight.”

The nerve. I mean, yeah, last year was rough, but ay, kid, that lambshank was free for you. Respect, pls.

So tonight we went to restaurant Damascus and we did indeed end up shouting at each other. Twice. I was bitter, but NOT. MY. FAULT.

^this story is true, but mainly I so missed this thread. I don’t generally nip anymore, but I could use one.

On the one hand I guess it's nice that after two years we're finally seeing people again but also thank fuck for beer

tis the season for the numbing comforts of brown liquor

Can’t really drink much anymore so…emotional eating?

Today we have all generally been reading or napping or both. But cocktails later.

pictures!

have moved in to coffee, in keep with brown beverages

already dreading christmas at home, first time in 3 years, as my cousin and her brattish kids will be visiting down under way. she's also dictated that we go out for christmas lunch and i've just seen the vegetarian option is

"Meatless Farm Plant Based Festive Chicken Roast (v)(ve)"

(from down under way)

Meatless Farm Plant Based Festive Chicken Roast (v)(ve)

I didn't know Sigur Rós had a new album out

Itchy Roooooooooast

https://www.discogs.com/artist/505-VVm

(turns out Meatless Farm is the brand name)

work christmas menu just been sent around and the vegetarian option in that is "Shicken". which i can't help but read as "shit chicken"

i am home. they are watching the (frankly racist) Australian border control programmes on TV.

dad counting the "English" players in the Liverpool vs Arsenal lineup

Sitcom text one of my folks sent me today: "Just a heads up... I have a feeling your spouse got you a very nice Xmas present"

oh... cool I have basically zero days to possibly trash my gift decision!