Figuring out logistics for the holiday season always requires making some tough decisions. However, if making these decisions puts a marriage in hot water, then there is a larger problem going on behind the scenes. Here, we have a 30-year-old husband who was hoping to split Christmas eve and Christmas day with his family as well as his wife's parents so both sets of grandparents could have some time with their three-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, his in-laws were possessive and could not fat…

Who knew that the tradition of hanging Christmas lights and decorating the exterior of your home would cause so much neighborhood drama? As someone who grew up in an apartment within a metropolitan area, this suburban madness is not something I inherently understood until I spent time in the suburbs as an adult. Let's just say it was a culture shock. Sign culture, flag culture, and Christmas lights culture are phenomena that are deeply strange and new to me, yet clearly, they can be the source…

"Please know that your employer will always value their bottom line over your dignity. I loved this job. I am so so sad."

As children, we're all taught that “we get what we get and we don't get upset.” Perhaps this is true in the vast majority of circumstances, but if you were to receive one of these Christmas gifts, you would have to possess a whole lot of self-control to be able to stop yourself from letting your rage bubble to the surface. Of course, not everyone is easy to shop for during the Holidays. I have been known to spend several weeks in December agonizing over what to gift my parents. For some family…

Holiday beef

Let's talk about mandatory, after-hours work events. We all have mixed feelings about them. On one hand, we spend a minimum of 8 hours with the same people at the office, if we're lucky enough, we actually see them as friends, but more often than not, they are simply colleagues. Sure, they might be nice people, but we have no desire to see them after we clock out of the job . Being forced to spend more time with them at another location, is not something many of us appreciate. Once we clock out…

The end of the year in the corporate world is full of holiday cheer (whether it's forced or not) and mild panic. Half the team is out using up their PTO before the New Year, while the rest of us are trying to make up for their absence while pretending to care about the work holiday party. Between the buzz of what Secret Santa gift you're getting this year, questionable holiday-themed potluck contributions, and wearing your coat inside the office while you struggle to defrost from the outside...

Who else has completely turned the page on Thanksgiving and begun their Holiday baking, shopping, and decorating? We are a few days into December now, which means Holiday obsessives are officially allowed to be insufferable without any criticism from the Grinches of the world who think it's too early to play “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” No matter where you fall on this spectrum, you definitely have a lot of feelings about all the hoopla that comes with this time of year. One thing that is…

"I don't make enough for this"

Giving gifts is a tricky thing and no simple task, there are so many pitfalls one can fall into with the act of giving. The gift needs to be representative of how you feel about the person and representative of the relationship itself. Not giving something thoughtful enough shows that you don't really understand, care, or consider them. Perplexingly, it's also possible to go too far, giving something that means and says way too much. Of course, the worst of all is simply forgetting about the oc…

"Never pre-game a work event"

Bah-humbug! This HOA member is getting coal in her stocking after spending an inordinate amount of time bothering someone who isn't even in her HOA. Up next, have a laugh at some of these bakery mistakes and messed-up cakes, like one person who shared what happened when “the bakery department tossed seven different types of unproofed dough into the composting bin overnight.”

Any potential step-parent knows that it can be difficult to gain the approval of your partner's kids. This is especially true if those kids are in the midst of their teenage years. This Redditor may need to learn the important lesson of not taking this treatment too personally, as her boyfriend's daughter probably would not be satisfied with anyone for her dad. The original poster (OP), of course, was trying to get her approval when she got the 13-year-old a necklace, a gift the teenager almost…

When this woman marched over to her new neighbor's house , she wasn't there to greet them and welcome them to the town. She didn't bring along a plate of cookies, or offer to water the plants if they're out of town. Instead of doing any number of nice acts, this woman decided to chide her new neighbors over their house decorations (or lack thereof). First impressions matter. The couple who told this story in the r/MalciousCompliance subreddit know that all too well. Since their neighbor didn't…

This company got bought out over and over again. It's no wonder the employees who remained had to deal with so many shenanigans from their managers. One of the best parts of working a salaried job is racking up paid time off days . Everyone uses their allotted time a little differently---some people love to take the family to Disney or on a camping trip a couple of times a year, while others take a few days here and there to do weekend adventures. No matter where you go, you come back feeling r…

This kiddo is all but guaranteed to wake up with coal in her stocking next Christmas. Every generation eventually finds themselves wondering about the kids these days. They're living out such a different version of childhood than the one you had while growing up. No matter which generation you're from, you probably spent it in entirely different ways than someone who's 20 or 30 years your senior. Older generations grew up in an era where you spent all day outside, and when televisions had three…