Christmas hell

Christmas messes with my head every bloody year.  It starts in November and it’s relentless.

Scheduling my family’s life is hard enough at the best of times without having to overlay all of the stuff that Christmas entails.

Everything just becomes super complicated and the calendar starts to look very busy.  I still try to fit everything in making sure everyone is getting the most out of their weeks but actually I think all my family gets is a very stressed and uptight me.

I told Dave my work Christmas do was on Thurs 16th December and he said his was then too.  My thought process went something like this:

• Kids need picking up from school – they could go to the after school club
• Ethan has a karate class at 4:25 – he could miss it and stay at the after school club
• Hannah’s karate class is at 5:10 – she could miss it and stay at the after school club
• Check.  Ethan’s taster sessions at the church choir happen in November and December but he will have finished them by the 16th.  Phew!
• After school club finishes at 6:00 and someone will need to pick Hannah and Ethan up.
• Dave’s Christmas do is likely to start at lunchtime and continue into the evening.
• I know nothing about my Christmas do except the date and that it’s likely to be in London.
• Let’s think about who deserves to have fun this Christmas the most between Dave and me.
• Dave works full time whereas I work part time and actually finish work at 12:00 on a Thursday.
• Dave is gets paid more than me (even pro rata) and he has a team, whereas I consider that I’m part of a team.
• We both started new jobs earlier in the year and could benefit from getting to know the team better.
• Can we really ask anyone to babysit just so that we can both go out and drink?  No.
• OK fuck it, I give in.  He can go out (just like last year) and I’ll stay at home and do what I normally do on a Thursday.

At this point I’m more resigned than resentful.  And then there’s the bombshell.  Dave tells me a week later that his team are actually going out on the Friday.  And if I want to go out he can take the Thursday afternoon off.

Dave doesn’t understand why I find this incredibly frustrating.  I know I should be grateful and happy but I’m not. 

Because Christmas is complicated enough without my husband adding to the Christmas scheduling stew with inaccurate information.  I’m still calming down.  I might be happy tomorrow.  Maybe.