Make your own holiday traditions! Family of choice can absolutely be who you gather with for holidays if family is too toxic for your mental health .
Gather with friends for the holidays. Friends are the family that we choose
@Elizabeth agreed! Our family celebrates Christmas in 2 days tomorrow and Christmas Day so we don’t feel like our day is ruined. Christmas Eve is just for us and Christmas Day is for drama or we can choose to omit seeing extended family all together
We still meet with my husband's extended family. Even though one of his sister's has long been ... Difficult with him and is just plain toxic and .... A mess. We still got together for thanksgiving. For Christmas, we ended up not getting together with local extended family , as one was sick and another was a week and change post surgery so shouldn't be exposed to sickness of any kind. ( His .... Worrisome sister has made nice at gatherings, but we have discussed that she will never be welcomed at our next living situation. Ever. Nor would she ever be allowed to babysit him )
Not to mention I had to resign from my job due to all the stress. I was getting bullied regularly there too. I don’t understand how these people sleep at night treating someone like this. Especially someone carrying life