I remember being so frustrated as a kid and into my teenage years as my extended family tried to optimize Christmas further and further every year to ease the burden on the family member hosting. And, to be fair, with a large extended family hosting a holiday was no small thing, and being young and completely blind to the exhaustive burden that life as an adult brings, I didn't appreciate that an additional monumental task of planning, cooking, cleaning and hosting that having the family around required.
Still, as part of these optimizing processes, dinner seemed to be served earlier and earlier each year in an effort to get everyone in and out as early as possible. The thing was, all I and my many cousins really wanted to do was play for as long as possible, and every attempt to optimize proceedings stood in direct opposition to that. Even worse, it eventually reached a point like it did in this account of events shared by this user, where things really stopped being "Holiday Dinners" and became more of a holiday lunch or mid-afternoon snack.
So, is the poster in the wrong here for not wanting to attend a 1 PM dinner with his family? Seems like another somewhat silly thing that is treated seriously in the broader scope of extended family.
Even more important is the fact that his main concern here seems to be the timing of preparing the turkey, for which he is responsible, which takes many hours of work and would require him to get up incredibly early in order to make that timing. And it's an unspoken rule of these engagements that the person responsible for the main centerpiece of the meal gets the ability to dictate the meal times.
Like what you see? Follow our WhatsApp channel for more.
Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!
