Basically I did. I was up front with my mom about how I am sacrificing a lot to come spend time with them and that I'm just not up for giving up my entire vacation and driving so much and then dealing with that kind of stuff. My mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law on their own are fine; for the most part, they're not too obnoxious. It's getting all the extended relatives together that becomes a dogpile of WTFery. LOL
I don't know if Mom said something to everyone else or what, but it was an amazingly wank free holiday. All the relatives pretty much kept their mouths shut about religious and political stuff. There was one moment where my aunt was being ridiculous, and I was all, "You are being ridiculous." I didn't leave the room or bite my tongue; I said what I thought and that effectively shut down the line of convo.
Do I think it will always be this easy or magical? No. I fully expect to have to tell my uncle at some point that if he insists on spewing racist slurs out of one side of his mouth while tearfully singing "Mary, Did You Know?" out of the other, the baby Jesus may in fact die of shame. LOL But overall, it went way better than I expected.
Re: I'm tired of being the bigger person
I don't know if Mom said something to everyone else or what, but it was an amazingly wank free holiday. All the relatives pretty much kept their mouths shut about religious and political stuff. There was one moment where my aunt was being ridiculous, and I was all, "You are being ridiculous." I didn't leave the room or bite my tongue; I said what I thought and that effectively shut down the line of convo.
Do I think it will always be this easy or magical? No. I fully expect to have to tell my uncle at some point that if he insists on spewing racist slurs out of one side of his mouth while tearfully singing "Mary, Did You Know?" out of the other, the baby Jesus may in fact die of shame. LOL But overall, it went way better than I expected.