Yeah, the Covid lockdowns of 2020 were a pretty big breakthrough for me in terms of just how not OK some of her actions have been and how much less stressed I am when I keep my distance from her, save family/holiday events.

Nice!!

I’m glad you’re enjoying your writing break! What books have you read?

I could tell he felt super awkward and I made clear that I was fine but that it also wasn’t their business…

She lost any right to my health info when she made me quit my antidepressants cold turkey at 17. She was a nurse and should have known that’s not the way to do that.

She didn’t even know how to use a computer until my second year of university and of course she used it to be weird and watch me on the Internet. 🫠

She also once noticed I’d commented on a friend’s FB post about my depression & how I’d just started meds again & she sent my dad to interrogate.

Thank you. 🫂 I’m going to an indoor play place with her and her mom so no skirt but we’ll get to spend the morning running around and climbing on stuff so I’m very much looking forward to that.

It’s Amara who Mel brought Davrin home to and she’s the one who walks her down the aisle when she marries Davrin. Post-Veilguard she starts being emotionally honest with herself and begins calling her “Grandma”.

Mel was kidnapped at 6 and sold into slavery but was informally adopted by her rescuer, Marcel and his mother, Amara when she was 13. She loves both of them so much and regrets not telling Marcel that he’s her dad before his sudden death in a terrible accident four months before she met Varric.

Most of Iris’ family was lost when her clan was attacked. She mourns her parents but it’s more complicated because through Solas she’s come to understand that they weren’t very good to her. Their biggest impact on her is teaching her what she doesn’t want to be to her and Solas’ daughter, Mira.

So that, if she opens her Christmas gift that day and wants to play princess, I look the part properly.

And maybe, through her, I can find something resembling joy in this time of year that I hate so much.

She won’t care that my folds aren’t perfect or that I used a little too much wrapping paper. She’s three and I wanted to give her the excitement of tearing into a gift. I’m seeing them on Monday and I’m thinking about wearing a skirt, even if it’s super cold out.

I wrapped a single gift: my three year old goddaughter’s. She’s my best friend’s daughter and I wrote a cheque for her parents to use however they wish but also asked my friend to suggest a gift for her. She asked me to get her a princess dress-up set because she likes to play dress-up nowadays.

So, as I put the liquor gifts in gift bags and the gift cards in envelopes, I thought about this and every other time I wasn’t good enough at Christmas for my mom.

I stopped trying after that, honestly. Knowing I would never do a good enough job for her, I just started using gift bags or buying gift cards for my family.

Now she complains about how few gifts are under the tree. That it’s all envelopes. I can’t win.

About a decade ago I was wrapping gifts at my parents’ house. I get depressed over the holidays but I was trying so hard to be cheerful but she was watching and lecturing me about how I wasn’t trying hard enough.

I was in my fucking mid-20s at the time. A whole grown ass adult who lived alone.

My hand-eye coordination isn’t good. I struggle with a lot of tasks that otherwise seem simple - including wrapping gifts, cutting in a straight line, folding, etc. I’m also left handed which adds to that particular pain.