I hate Christmas!  It has been nothing but a bad time for me ever since I can remember.  It isn’t worth it to me to even recall any of the past Christmases, since they all were awful!  I dread this time of year.  Every year I swear that I am not going to let Christmas get the best of me.  Every year, something happens that makes that Christmas worse than any before it.  It is pure insanity!
I am sure my hatred of this holiday has a lot to do with my take on it.  After so many years of disappointments and bad things happening, I do have a bad attitude towards it.  But, it never fails that something new happens that just ruins the whole holiday, cementing the way I feel about it.  This year was no exception.
Blended families require careful manipulation of scheduling during the holidays.  It is a way of life.  I have been there, figuring out and carrying out plans to accommodate both sets of parents and the child for a smooth holiday visitation schedule.  You just learn to live with it and to do the best for all parties involved.  This year, we decided to go to my son’s on Christmas Eve, due to a visitation schedule for two of his step-children.  They were to be at their dad’s on Christmas.  No big deal.  Christmas Eve is as good a day as any!  So, that was what we planned on doing.  Somehow, through a lack of communication, it was not revealed to us until noon that day, that those tweo children would only be