Christmas Tradition that I Despise

 No, I am not a Grinch at all. I love Christmas as much as anyone does. But, I suffered through one Christmas tradition that I hope to never participate in ever again. 

A guy invited me to go to his mother's house where his whole family was celebrating Christmas. Of course, we arrived early. I had a basket with a cake stand in it. I had brought tiny cupcakes to put on the stand. I went into the kitchen with his mother and got out my contribution. Not thirty minutes later, I noticed the cupcakes were on a styrofoam Christmas plate. 

I went into the kitchen and asked his mother why? She said she washed the cake stand and got everything ready for me to leave! I was incensed but did not react with the fury I felt. I doubt she was trying to get rid of me. Maybe? The thing is, she had nothing nice out for the Christmas table. I told her not to ever pack my food and serving dish ever again. Oh, I was livid, but did not express myself in a way to ruin the spirit of the occasion. 

Now to the despicable tradition in their family. First, the cast.

His mother, my friend was her son, his single sister, mother of the nephew who was a veteran, nephew's wife and two young teen boys, friend's two daughters, one a bratty fourteen-year-old, the other daughter was the mother of the most obnoxious four-year-old I have ever seen. The wife of the vet made a show of asking me if I needed to go to the bathroom since both of her sons in braces would need the bathroom for a bit to brush their teeth. ??? It turned out that the time the boys needed was three minutes.

Okay, all these people with their peccadillos were just people who were in his life, people I would never have to be with again. Besides, we were here to have fun. We did.

Then, the horror began. Their tradition was that only one person at a time opened a present. Some of the guests have half a dozen gifts under the tree. It was so painful and loooong. That was 11 people to open gifts. The four-year-old could not pay attention to opening a gift so g-grandmother, grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, and at times, others urged her to open the gift instead of running around getting in between anyone who tried to have a conversation with each other. I am telling you it was slow chaos. It just went on and on and on. 

This was in 2005, and I have still not recovered! Until then, I had never come across a Christmas tradition I disliked in the least. I know people love their traditions. We had ours, some silly, but nothing painful. 

Don't pretend you have never come across a tradition that you did not like. Okay, maybe you did. But, anyone, let me hear a tradition you do not like or would prefer to eliminate or change. 

This was my first and last Christmas I had with this man. I would have gone with him again, but I would steel myself for the occasion. I know some people have said this is a tradition at their house, so I wanted to post this before I stepped on toes. Okay, I am not stepping on specific toes this way, just generally. 

What tradition do you or did you not like? Or, prefer not to happen with you there?  

Play nice. This a 15-year trauma. 

Brushing my body--did it last night and will do tonight. I have had a severe pain in my left leg, so painful that I fear I may lose my foot or leg!