Kinda Bummed about Christmas

Rant ahead! ;o) I thought this year would be better. No getting up early to open presents then hurry to pack and head to Illinois. We slept in..late. Took our time opening presents had a nice lunch. But I kept missing my family. All of us sitting around the table..laughing and playing games. I am glad that Sarah got to stay here and play with all of her stuff. She was so happy with everything she got. Everything she opened was "I always wanted ___ !" LOL We headed up to Peoria on Friday the 26th. Went through terrible fog. I was driving..the only way I could have handled that stuff. It was awful. You couldn't see more than two car lengths in front of us. When I had someone in front of me I was ok..but as soon as their lights disappeared I wanted to cry. I was so stressed by the time we reached Peoria..I was hurting. We met my family for brunch Saturday then headed to my sisters house to open presents. I love buying for everyone..seeing them open gifts but we decided to only by for the kiddos this year. Before we reached her house my BIL decided to go get soda's. Now why the heck didn't they already have stuff since they knew we were coming days ago? So he takes an hour to get soda...and we open presents without him. He gets back and spends two minutes with us then goes into the kitchen to load the dishwasher and who knows what else. Again..what the heck?? We drive 3 hours to spend time with all of them and he does that? We all thought it was really rude. Dave, E and I play Wii for a little while. My other BIL is soooo bored with all of us you could tell he wanted out of there. My Mom takes off after about 20 minutes, my sister and BIL leave after maybe an hour. He kept saying to her we can stay if you want. But she does whatever he want..hell with her family. What happened to the days of playing cards..sitting around the table laughing?? I want those back dangit! We head over to FIL that night and his ex g/f is there. I can't believe he invites her over. This is the same woman he told to see other people. She supposedly stole a dress that belonged to my deceased MIL. He is also seeing a lady that he really likes...so why the heck ask this woman over when it should be family only. I couldn't have cared less if she was fine with just being his friend...but she is totally going to think that him having her there means he still wants her in his life. She thought he was going to marry her even after he told her that she should date other people! Then to top it off SIL isn't there. She spent Thanksgiving with her new b/f and spent Christmas there too. She said she was going to come back that weekend with him if she could get him to come to spend time with all of us. I knew that wasn't going to happen. I can't believe she just blows off her family like that. She is always the one driving 3 hours to see him..but he can't make the drive back to meet her family..let her spend some time with her brother and niece that she hasn't seen in 9 months? Then she goes on and on at her myspace page how she missed us and how much she loves S. Well now S has no clue what her Aunt even looks like. The poor kid thought Grandpa's friend was her Aunt! That's bad. Dave also brought up the trip my FIL is taking next year to visit his two sisters in Arizona. He said he was going in Feb. So Dave said make sure you keep the 14th open for S's birthday party. FIL said "Oh I won't be there..I am leaving around the 10th". I told dh that it's not like S's birthday changes every year! Ok..now maybe I shouldn't be upset by this. But the man is retired and so are his sisters. So why does he have to pick that time frame? He never ever comes up here to visit his granddaughter. He only sees her when we go to his house. Then he doesn't have much to do with her. I think he is kinda afraid to do to much with her. When she was a baby more times than not she would cry if gpa held her. I guess I just had this vision of my daughters grandparents and aunts and uncles wanting to spend a little time with her. I lost my Dad before Sarah was born and Dave lost his Mom before Sarah was born. So I really wanted the closeness with my daughter and her immediate family. My side can't spend enough time with her. My Mom would love nothing more than to be able to drive up here whenever she wanted and spend time with S. But she can't drive alone and gets tired easy. I don't doubt that the inlaws love her. But I wanted better for her. I always felt like my gparents didn't care that much about me. I was just another grandchild out of many. Well S is the ONLY grandchild on my husbands side and might be the only one he ever has. I guess I just have to come to the conclusion that she may never be close to her Grandfather or Aunt. Now Dave's brother is a totally different story. She loves him to pieces and he really loves her too. She will go to him immediatly and they will play together. He wants children of his own so bad. She will never be without love and for that I am greatful. I tend to spend time thinking about the what if's. What if my Dad was still alive? Or what if my MIL was still alive? Things would be different I'm sure. I needed to vent this...get it off my chest and hopefully get over my anger/disappointment. I figure it is their loss! She is such a loving and funny little girl and they are missing out on it! Other than that it was a good Christmas visit! LOL