OK, so my parents have been divorced for almost 20 years now.

We've worked out Christmas usually by figuring we'll see each other when we see each other. Of course, when I was in high school, I didn't travel over Christmas (too little time!) ... and in college, I typically was off for about a month after my last exam, so I had plenty of time to work out when I'd see Mom because I lived at Dad's.

Since I moved out, the choice was usually simple - head to Dad's and travel with the sibs to Grandma's.

Now I've got DD. And we travel. So, my usual solution was hosting a pre-Christmas Christmas get-together at my house. I make "Barilla Box Lasagna," serve soda, cocktails, and wine, we all visit, the kids play, and we all go home happy.

This year, between my Nana dying and Thanksgiving being later in November ... and all the DRAMA with my sister, plus trying to plan around my concert and DH not being willing to commit to hosting ANYTHING (and DH's family pre-Christmas Christmas get-together) we were unable to plan and host one this year.

Which now leaves me in a logistical lurch because now I won't see Dad without a lot of extra footwork. And he REALLY needs to see the kids at Christmas this year - it'll be his first without his mother (Nana) in 61 years. Having the grandbabies around will help a lot with healing his ripped up soul right now.

But, damn, it would have been SO much easier to just effing host the effing party!!!