Am I the only one here that hates Xmas?

[PassingFair]

31. I'm the opposite. I absolutely love Christmas....

but I have somehow become the sole purveyor of it for my extended family.

My mother lives ACROSS THE STREET from me and wants the entire family (five siblings
plus spouses and children and (soon) grandchildren all together on Christmas day.

My house is bigger, so every year, I have all of them over for dinner and then we
troop across the street for dessert, coffee and present opening at my Mom's.

19 people this year (one sibling is out-of-state)! I would really prefer NOT to have
everyone together. It is so much trouble cleaning, cooking, buying all the food...
all to have it consumed and over with in about 1/2 hour!

We have tried to pawn the dinner off on other sibs....but NO TAKERS.
It makes my mother happy, though, and she's 78 this year, so my sainted husband
will play host to my unruly, ungrateful, preposterous family once again.

When we were kids, it was just the nuclear family at dinner and in the morning.
We would see other relatives over the course of the week. This BIG DEAL family
"gathering" is what depresses me!

I ain't gonna lie....once my mother is gone, that will be IT for me and Xmas dinner!
I don't mind seeing my siblings one at a time and have no desire to have everybody
together at once. I don't really understand it. No one has a decent conversation, no
REAL sharing, just loud craziness with everyone running around and shouting at the
top of their (and their kids) lungs. Bits and pieces of conversations. Wrapping paper
everywhere.