Update to Learning to Say No (whiney rant)

If you did not read my original post I wrote about having to host the family xmas dinner when I am newly out from reconstruction surgery post double mastectomy and lamented about needing to do a better job of saying no (setting bounderies).

It wasn't perfect by any means, but the teenagers and husband came through. My son took over cleaning... 21 year old who never cleans. He didn't just do the minimum either, he washed walls and such to really clean. My older daughter went back and forth between cleanin and cooking. My husband did a ton of cooking. The only misstep was that by 3 pm everybody was just done and getting tired and cranky. (We all woke up at 5 am for presents and our traditional Christmas breakfast, so nearly all was working off of 2 hours or less of sleep.)  My daughter cracked first so I said she could just relax and somebody else would step in. By then my older sister and her family was there. She did, and is spared her from being a hot mess. Dinner never made it to the table per se, because nobody felt like setting it. Oh well. Buffet style gets folds fed just as well. Dinner was 2 hours late, but I for once was able to let something like that go. (Normally when I host if I say dinner is at 4, it is on the table and 3:55 type thing.) In all, things went well. My husband did dishes post dinner and my son noticed later that night that the house actually stayed reasonable clean post festivities. I literally didn't lift a finger other than to make a Keurig coffee for my sister.

The best part of the day (aside from my son surprising me with such a positive attitude and hours cleaning) was that my schizophrenic sister and autistic brother had a proper Christmas. They live together 2 hours away and are always starved for family time, and they nearly didn't have a family gathering this year. 

I hope everyone's holiday went well too and thank you for the supportive posts on the other thread!

Congratulations on have such good kids and a terrific husband but.....next time do what I do when I need to get out of extended family holiday stuff.  Book a cruise!  Just don't tell the rest of your family what ship you're sailing on.

I'm so glad your family stepped up and that things turned out well!  The holidays and entertaining are super stressful so I'm glad your kids and partner had your back :)