come to south canada hal and you can hang out with me for kwanzaa
come to south canada hal and you can hang out with me for kwanzaa
I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.
Except for the kids.. Get the kids a little sumptin sumptin..Originally Posted by RBP
Nope, not even then. My family was poor at times, and sometimes you got 1 gift - One Christmas I got a few hotwheels cars and a chocolate bar in my stocking. I never felt like I was lacking anything until my friends bragged about their train set, and their this and their that. When times got better, I did get a race car set, or whatever, but even now we don't go nuts at Christmas.
I once, when I got a full time job at Christmas bought my dad an answering machine and it was as if I bought something so extravagant, my dad was kinda mad and cool about it at the same time.
Biggest ticket item for my daughter is the ongoing rental of her Sax. And we spent $40 on pizzas when her friends came over.
I'll say it...I'm cheap. I think I splurge more at Birthdays than at Christmas. It's more the get-together bit of it for us.
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Yep, I won't even get into the different wage levels vs who gets what at Christmas in our family.
My Dad summed it up one year..." Boy hal, you sure get ripped off at Christmas. "
My bro has always made over six figures a year and last year I got a Tim Hortons gift card from him. He gave my Dad an iPad air which my father rarely used because he found it confusing and had no need. I quipped to his wife - No fair, Dad gets an 800 dollar iPad he never uses and I get 25 bucks worth of coffee. She responds - Oh he knew your Dad was going to pass away and he would get the iPad back.
I said to her very quietly - That is one of the coldest things I've ever heard. She almost starts crying and says - Please don't tell him I told you that!
When I don't like or get along with someone, there's usually a reason. Karma is going to hit him with a tidal wave one day.
Noilly Pratt (12-19-2017), RBP (12-19-2017)
What an asshole. You should 'misplace' the iPad and then sell it on Craigslist after they leave.Yep, I won't even get into the different wage levels vs who gets what at Christmas in our family.
My Dad summed it up one year..." Boy hal, you sure get ripped off at Christmas. "
My bro has always made over six figures a year and last year I got a Tim Hortons gift card from him. He gave my Dad an iPad air which my father rarely used because he found it confusing and had no need. I quipped to his wife - No fair, Dad gets an 800 dollar iPad he never uses and I get 25 bucks worth of coffee. She responds - Oh he knew your Dad was going to pass away and he would get the iPad back.
I said to her very quietly - That is one of the coldest things I've ever heard. She almost starts crying and says - Please don't tell him I told you that!
When I don't like or get along with someone, there's usually a reason. Karma is going to hit him with a tidal wave one day.
Hal-9000 (12-19-2017), Noilly Pratt (12-21-2017), RBP (12-19-2017)
He already got it a few months ago. Also, we had an old radio down here from the 30's and a working Victrola complete with 78's from the 30's and 40's.
Both are in his house now...I helped carry them out and pack his truck over the summer. My sister and I rather than argue with him, just agreed he should take them.
Him and his wife walk around here exclaiming - Oooh a wooden driver golf club, oooh an old phone table, ooooh an antique sugar bowl. I think we should take this stuff!!
My wonderful sister who's typically a really kind person says - WHOA! If anything is going to be taken, we will discuss it and I get first crack at some of this older stuff!!!!
She agrees with me. Keep my parent's house the way it is right now and look after it...like an homage to their life building it.
After my Mom goes, then we can into the who gets what scenarios.
People often wonder why I hate my bother because generally I'm a pretty friendly guy to most people. My sister asked - Won't it be better to have someone in the house with you at Christmas? I said I'd rather spend it with my Dad's ashes and some eggnog, than with Fuckface McSelfish
DemonGeminiX (12-19-2017), Goofy (12-21-2017), Teh One Who Knocks (12-19-2017)
I called my brother, my 'bother' in the post above.
How Freudian
I hear you. When my Mum passed away in 2000, I inherited all her household goods. I was just 3 years into living my house and had a futon, a stereo and a bed and that's about it. So it was welcome for sure.
Throughout her life, my brother would look at an object and say "oh, Mum, put that in the will for me" as a joke just a few times too often. So much so that my Mum would say to me "when I go - you watch him!" So my revenge was gifting her a sticker for her car "We're spending our kid's inheritance".The car he eventually inherited.
The will stipulated that the car was to be sold and the proceeds split 3 ways but that somehow didn't happen.
My bro (my "Fuckface McSelfish" - love it!) and his wife volunteered to pack up Mum's stuff as "therapy" and for the most part, it made its way into my home, all nicely categorized. But a few years later I notice little trinkets, little stuff that was in their home...if I asked, they said "Mum gave that to us" when I know she didn't. I wouldn't have begrudged them any of it, but I think it would have been nice to have been asked. I didn't make waves. So when he decided to give me the silent treatment (for what transgression I still don't know) about 7 years ago, it is now that I analyze it, a welcome relief.
My other brother just after the funeral and before his flight back wanted a few china tea cups (my Mum love them) so he went down to my basement and started rooting through and took a few back with him to Ontario. That was fine but he was saying "what about..." and a certain mug and describing a certain one in detail. He is 16 years older than me (my other brother is 18) and was relying on a 30 year old memory as to certain mugs. I had no clue. He then hit me up for a loan for 10K (about what I inherited) after he returned home to pay the taxman.
Families are strange.
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Hal-9000 (12-19-2017)
Boy does my brother sound like yours Noilly. He makes the same really inappropriate comments and I realized it's not a 'me and him' thing...it's a him thing.
He will be here for a week over Christmas and I may just remind him of every selfish, asshole move he's made over the years as part of his gift.
As it stands I got him and his wife a nice gift. If he asks why I'm not going out to Christmas dinner with them, my response will be - Because I usually celebrate Christmas with people that I love. Mom and Dad are gone and my sister isn't here so what's the point?
fuckface - 0
hal - 1
Goofy (12-21-2017)
For me, it took getting married and having my wife say "do you realize how verbally abusive he is to you? Why do you take that?" to get me to wise up and realize how damned dysfunctional the whole situation was. And then the inevitable break...
I think this trip will "inform" your bro quite a bit that you mean what you say. Hopefully after the Christmas season we will be celebrating your "emancipation", so to speak.
Good Luck!! And I hope it helps knowing others have trodden down the same path...
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Hal-9000 (12-19-2017)
If I hadn't been born a boy, I wouldn't have had anything to play with on Christmas morning.
For your old crusty hearts
You didn't by chance have to walk 6 miles in the snow uphill and barefoot just to get to school also did you?
I will say, we were poor growing up after my parents split. My dad left us with nothing and my mom didn't have a lot of work skills because she'd been a stay at home wife/mother. But even though we had to go without on a lot of things, at Christmas she tried to make it amazing for me and my brother. I still remember the year that we got an Atari 2600 for Christmas and we couldn't believe it because it was such an expensive thing back then. I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now because my mom would have had to go without things even more than usual just so she could get that for us. Christmas is and always should be about the kids.
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