Thanksgiving. Again.

Tomorrow is the big day. Thanksgiving. Love the food, hate the awkward. And with my family, there is always a lot of awkward to be had. I'm sure that I'm not alone in that, I'm sure you guys also have your share of awkward family time. 

I think that's just family though. Cram a bunch of people that are only connected by blood or marriage together into a house once a year when you spend the rest of the year actively avoiding each other and it's sure to be awkward. It's hard to avoid everyone all at once unless you lock yourself into a far removed closet. Which actually, my cousin Gary did that every year while I was growing up, he'd hide in a bedroom.

Now though, since I'm married, we've had to incorporate the husband's family and mine together. Both of our families are weird, but in totally different ways. His parents are in their 60s, upper middle class, straight up Leave It To Beaver types. My parents are in their 50s, they came of age in the very stoned 70s and are pretty spacey and boozy.

Husband's family

My famly

For years growing up Thanksgiving was always at my great-aunts house with everyone piling up there. Now she has passed away, her daughter and my grandmother still live there, and we still carried on with the family gatherings for a bit after my aunt passed away. Then a few things happened pretty much all at once (well, it was over the span of a year, but since we never see each other.... you got me) my cousin that owned the traditional gathering home started feuding passively with my mother's brother (fuck him, I don't call him my uncle), I got separated from my husband and my mother's brother started harassing me about being separated and not sticking with my marriage just because I was "bored" as he said and I jumped all over his ass, my mother's brother's wife refused to come to any more family functions. Then the husband and I got back together and my mother's brother tried to start more shit the next year, my cousin was still feuding with him, suddenly my cousin couldn't get off work for the holiday anymore, blah blah life happened.

Long story short now we're gathering with my husbands family minus my mother's brother and his family.