I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as I did.
Journaling here...I attached no significance to anything except for the fact that Snodderly said the MLCer is miserable and it seems that she, as usual, is spot on...
This might be a rather long one.
We're going back to Fri. Dec. 23. D19 was supposed to take D13 shopping to let her pick out some last minute gifts. D19 got a call from her boyfriend and must have gotten a better offer...So the two girls argue back and forth somewhat and D13 gets the great idea to call her father.
H said he was out shopping and that if D19 could run Jordan to Wal-Mart he'd meet them there and D13 could shop with him and D19 could go meet her BF. So the two girls leave the house...a little later I get a frantic phone call from D19. H failed to mention that he was out shopping with ow. D19 spotted them first and H didn't even recognize the girls even though he looked straight at them. They ducked behind a clothes rack and called me.
D19 was upset never having met ow before and has adamantly refused to. D13 got on the phone with me and said that D19 wouldn't bring her home, what should she do? I said do what you have to do. D13 has met the ow before.
So, by the time the girls come out from behind the clothes rack, H and ow had moved on continuing to shop. D19 was not going to turn D13 loose in the chaotic store alone so she stiffened her backbone and she and D13 went to find them. When they come upon them, ow and H were arguing. The girls couldn't tell about what...
Both Ds approached H and he turned from ow and got a big smile on his face and made over D19 and D13. He turned his back on ow and ignored her. He hugged and kissed D19 and never even tried to introduce ow to her. D19 said as her Dad was hugging her ow gave her the death glare and D19 said she gave it right back to her. ow looked down at the floor the whole time D19 was talking to H. D19 hugged and kissed her Dad goodbye and left D13 with them.
D13 said that ow didn't say one word to her the whole time she was with them. In fact, ow went her own way and H and D13 hung out shopping together. H even helped D pick out gifts for us. D said there was tension between H and ow, like they were just PO at each other the whole time. D asked her Dad (in private) if he could drop ow off at their house before he brought her home. Even though it was the long way around, H agreed. H and D sat outside my house for at least 30 minutes watching S24's light show. S24 has rigged the lights up to 'dance' to the Christmas music he's programmed. It is spectacular, but H has seen it multiple times although not in its entirety as far as I know. Sounds like someone in no hurry to get home.
This isn't the first time I've heard lately that H and ow haven't looked happy out together while out shopping. Someone that DIL works with who knows the sitch and supports H and ow being together because they are happy now, told DIL that she'd seen them out shopping recently and H just looked angry and unhappy... H's cousin also told me that she'd seen them together out shopping and H again looked mad.
Who knows? It could just be the stress of Christmas and shopping. It would be the opposite of what I knew H to be around this time of year. He always liked to be out and among the masses to shop. This was the only time of the year that he liked it.
Dec. 24, H and S27 go do their annual shopping trip together. This used to include S24 too, until H left...H mentions to S27 that ow has to work on Christmas day and they discuss what time H should come to my house the next morning. They agree on 7:30 am because S and DIL have to be at her Dad and stepmother's between 9:30 and 10:00 for breakfast with a whole bunch of family members and then to have their Christmas with them.
Dec. 25 - S and DIL arrive at my house at about 7:15. 7:30 comes and no H. 8:00, no H. 8:30, still no H. D13 calls him, no answer. 9:00, still no H and no word from him. Finally D13 gets a hold of him at 9:15. He tells her he'll be there when he gets there...
S27 and DIL take off for her parent's house as it takes a good 20 minutes or more to get there, and can't wait anymore. H calls just after they leave and tells D he's on his way. She told him that S and DIL already left. He yells over the phone as he is madder than a hornet about it. He tells the girls to be ready when he gets here so that they can help him unload the truck.
I went into my den and shut the door when H finally arrived. I could hear the girls and H but couldn't make out what was being said while they were in the family room. He told them that he hadn't been to sleep yet by 5:00 that morning. He said that he was at the ER. While ow was at work the day before, a man patient grabbed her and knocked her head into the wall a few times. (She works in a nursing home) Apparently the pain got worse when she got home that night and he ended up running her to the ER and they gave her some sort of muscle relaxer.
So, by 5:00 am yesterday morning when they finally get home from the ER and H finishes up wrapping he decided to sit in his chair a while before coming over to my house and ended up falling asleep and that's why he was late.
He stays for the girls opening their gifts. I had prepared some appetizers (Little smokies wrapped in bacon, covered in brown sugar and baked in the oven) and made a cookie tray up beforehand and H really enjoyed them if the number he ate was any indication... He was getting ready to leave and I hear him at the door. He asks the girls if anybody is coming over for dinner and our Christmas later, besides S27 and DIL? So very strange that he seems unconcerned that he's left ow at home, drugged up, and is asking them if we're going to have anyone else here later besides us...
I'm not reading anything into anything. I just thank God that I'm in a much better place now than the first Christmas, and even last year's. I'm not saying that I didn't have any feelings about hearing them in there together having a good time which was so special to us in year's past, but all I felt were little twinges. I did not feel any need to see him. Not that I was afraid or hiding, I just didn't need to put myself through something that I have no part in anymore.
We had our Christmas as a family later. After we were done opening gifts, I prepared the dinner S27 had bought for us. We had prime rib, baked potato, shrimp and stuffed mushrooms. It was so good!
Wouldn't you know that DIL went home and posted on FB about how delicious it was and that I am a great cook.
We changed it up this year and have started new traditions. H has always just wanted a buffet type meal on Christmas day. I'd make homemade lasagna with my own sauce, and we'd have a veggie tray, dips, cheese, pepperoni and crackers, just snacky type foods.
Cleaning up later, I found a receipt that must have fallen out of H's jacket while he was here. It was dated the 23rd of Dec., the day D13 was out shopping with him. On it among other things was for a couple tins of frozen lasagna...
If you've gotten this far, bless you. lol This just gives some clue to those that think that the MLCer is living the high life, that all is not as it seems.
