Late to the party myself...just got back from a much needed t-doctor session! I love my t-doctor.
Christmas went well until it fell apart. The falling apart was only slightly related to my difficult child and, ironcially, she is completely unscathed by it.
difficult child came over in the a.m with her boyfriend and their kitten. I found the kitten part pretty amusing. She gave me a plaque with the irish blessing on it. I was touched by her gift. I had gifts for her, a framed baby photo of her and restaurant gift card for the boyfriend and a toy and lottery tickets for the kitten. They stayed an hour and were both very respectful and sweet. Even the surly boyfriend. The kitten, of course, was precious.
difficult child announced that they would be joining me at my sister's later that day. I thought this was not a problem as there would be plenty of food, we don't exchange gifts and she'd get to see her cousins. She's ditched at the last minute for the last several holitdays.
Went to my niece's and had a blast then on to my sisters. Beat difficult child there by 15 minutes during which time my sister acted like a crazy person, berating me for springing difficult child and this "unknown" boy on her. Even went so far as to say "difficult child will be welcome here ONLY after she apoplogizes for Thanksgiving. You have no idea how she humiliated the family with her behavior at Thanksgiving." I replied "I do know". To which she replied "And you don't call her on it, do you?". I was stunned.
difficult child then shows up, is greeted with sincere, loving open arms by all her cousins and my brother in law, has a great time, stays about two hours, thanks her aunt sincerely when she leaves and has not a clue about what went down in the fifiteen minutes between my arrival and hers.
I am still stunned. You see, I've always accepted my sister's nasty disposition as being part and parcel to who she is. I love her anyway. I love her even when she's a b. But yesterday, she did the unthinkable. She attacked my daughter. Yes, my badly behaved daughter, but my daughter nonetheless.
Clearly, I have shared too much with her. It is simply not safe sometimes to share outside this community.
Thank you all for understanding how difficult the holidays can be with a difficult child. From what I've read from nancy,TL, Kathy and RM, even a good holiday comes with a heap of sorrow when you're child is fighting the difficult child battle.
Dash