so who went to their parents for christmas?

of course, even though my parents live a whole 5 minutes away from me.

my parent went to their parents.

my parents are 2500 miles away. i don't speak to my dad anyway.

Oh?

My children and grandchildren came to my house. My mom is deceased and my dad disowned me when he found out I am gay. I had a wondeful time cooking and baking cookies. :)..and watching my grandcildren unwrap their gifts. I gave an Interfaith service Christmas Eve.

my mum died this year and the way I feel,I may well be joining her.
dont you find religion gets in the way of what Christmas is really about ?
namely Total Abuse.
where's the faith in that?

no, because I concentrate on the real meaning of Christmas..I am not christian but interfaith. I view it as a time of rebirth and regeneration of myself and humanity..hoping just a taste of the love expressed at this time of year may carry on a little throughout the year. I agree that some churches do abuse and twist the real meaning behind it..dogma is not important..what goes on inside people is..my faith is in that fact the creator has enabled me to do many things and given us all abilities we only touch upon. Its a matter of faith in myself as a Divine being, which we all are... we are not just peons who are suppose to bend down and worship, we are a part of a spiritual being and create our own existance if we only realize it. I feel thats what christmas is about. Coming in touch with the ultimate love inside us and refreshing our memory of this part of us. Some refer to it as the "babe" or "christ" within. Sorry didn't mean to get carried away :). Sorry about the loss of your mom. I know it was very hard for me when I lost mine.

Sorry about your loses.
I agree with you butterfly.
At least the love for them remains.

My Christmas:
Sitting 2500 miles away from anyone I'm related to and knowing that the father (who was never really a father to me) is slowly dying, and that at some undetermined time in the not-to-distant future (even though I don't give a shit) I'm going to have to take time off work and spend alot of money, energy and emotion to bury this asshole that I've purposefully kept out of my life because nobody else will.

Even in death he gets his way. I hate him.

For me Christmas is about going out, partying and having fun because the last thing I need to be doing is thinking about that shit in my free time or sitting around with someone else's family pretending it makes up for me not being with mine.

I view it as a time of rebirth as well....but only because it comes at the end of the year and I don't have to work so I actually have time to relax and think about things. But if shit like the above is what I'm going to be thinking about, I'd rather be out getting drunk. (Yes I know how bad that sounds but I don't care ;)

It's a designated time for everyone to have time off at the same time so they can travel and see their family and friends and try to be happy with those they want to be around (or be happy away from those they dislike). It's mostly about rampant consumerism, bolstering the economy and bonding time for Christians to reinforce their belief system within their family and circle of friends.

If there's anything we should be gaining from 'Christmas', it should be the knowledge that one doesn't have to wait until the end of the year to give someone a gift or be nice them or reflect on one's spirituality, and that one should stop depending on organized religion to save humanity and just start doing what we knowas a species is right.

I don't read a bunch of flowery imagery and meaning into it. What meaning? Are you kidding me? The supposedly holiest place on earth is an even bigger violent shitstorm all these years after this prophet died and we still don't listen to what the guy said...

Long live Festivus.

uh huh ,Ive done four funerals this year and practice helps .
My parents generation really hold on to the bitter end .
Ive learned this, that doing a good death is really the last good thing you can do for you kids ,make it quick and snappy and dont put them through it .The answers in your own hands.

i want a new liver... we don't celebrate christmas in my family, but i'm at home with them during the time. only because all my friends go home to cleveland as well. plus, it's a great time to go out drinking every night of the week without and worries about waking up the next day and spending it entirely in bed recovering from the 3 bottles of captain morgan you proved can be drinken in 1 night.

christmas eve i spent with 3 friends drinking as much beer as humanly possible and making the most obscene crank phone calls to people. wish i had blocked my called ID number the next morning, since everyone else wakes up on christmas at the break of dawn and i wanted to sleep till the room stoped spinning around that same time.

christmas day was slightly more entertaining. my dad hates his girlfriend of 15 or some years (commonwealth marriage), and we all hate their family. so me and him make a point to get as drunk as possible at the bar and shoot pool together and such. only this year he had to go with her to the bitches daughters house for some celebration thing. which ment i went to my moms (about 45mins away) with my brother to get drunk there. my step dad's entire family came home to celebrate the day, which i my mom was glad i showed up so i could at least get drunk and show them how her son could outdrink 3-4 old men at a time in a row. then i proceded to pass out on the floor where some 3 year old built a house out of blocks and furry creatures around my body.

christmas night i found my dad locked himself in my room, initially we thought he did some bad drugs. turns out the family stuff when horrible with the bitch of a 'wife' he has. he is renting out half of a double he owns to her daughter (who recently moved out from her husband and took their 2 year old kid). the daughter 'smelled' gas in the house on christmas and called the gas company. they won't have the gas turned back on for at least a good week, or two, if their lucky. gas companies in ohio are quick to shut you off if you say you think there's a leak. impossible to get that shit back on when you need it though. plus now my dad has to go thru and replace all the lines in the house for no reason.

speaking of which, she moved in with my dads house now, so the 'wifes' entirely family is now living here. 2 sons and a daughter. the youngest of whom is 31 or so? if i still lived with my mom at that age, i'd probably had done as many drugs as them have too.

anyways, i'm actually having a great vacation. i drink my ass off every night till the wee hours of the morning in an attempt to let my friends allow me to stay at their places instead of having to go to my dads house, where i have no bed at the moment.

were throwing my annual huge new years party this year again. if it weren't for that, i'd of never came home.