Don't hate the holidays

For years I lived in Texas far away from my family and I would clean and decorate for me. It was peaceful. Most of the time I got sympathy invites to friends and acquaintances sometimes I went but I loved having thanksgiving and Christmas all to myself in my clean house and would give myself a "spa" and wear my best clothes as I watched my favorite movies. If I did go to friends I made an effort to be cheerful. Always brought food or drink usually both. They'd never had mulled wine or real eggnog so my contribution was welcomed.

Now I'm back home and it's ok, it's nice to be with family. We have a gathering after the meal and everybody brings a dollar gift. We play a dice game and when you get doubles you pick a gift from the center. Once you get a gift you stop rolling the dice until the bonus round. When everyone has a gift then we play a few fun rounds where you exchange you gift for someone else's cause it's pretty or unusual. Then we open the gifts, they are all a dollar so some are for fun, others useful. If fun and not expensive. The kids under 7 get gifts though. It's low keyed and nobody gets dressed up and we no longer go to church Christmas Eve cause they no longer have midnight mass with candles. It's sort of a pain having so many people crowded into one house but I can deal with it, I don't hate it.