Hi there. Your situation with your sister's birthday dinner sounds so much like my situation with my in-laws. We are all supposed to get together for a social on every holiday and when it is not a holiday. It doesn't matter if you have other plans. It doesn't matter if you have to work. They act as if you are supposed to take off work, redo your plans to suit theirs. Then you sit there and they ignore you the whole time and it is uncomfortable. It is irritating. Sometimes I go to the gatherings to "keep the peace."

There are times though when I cannot go just to keep the peace. Then they start insisting I go.