To Eric, I’ll be taking my two children and my family from California to the UK to visit my husband’s parents. My husband’s brother, his partner, and their little daughter will be traveling from Sweden to spend a portion of our visit.
We recently learned that tickets for an event with Santa at a nearby stately property were purchased by my husband’s brother’s partner. She didn’t invite us or our kids to the event, even though it’s planned for when we’ll all be there together.
To make matters more difficult, tickets were sold out when I went to make my reservation, even though I had already wanted to go to this event before finding out it was happening.
I’m devastated that my children and I will now be unable to go. I’m having trouble deciding how to handle this or even whether I should, and I don’t want to cause conflict in the family. Despite being with my husband’s brother for nearly two decades, she has never seemed to interact closely with us as a family and has previously been challenging.
Although she is amiable, she frequently organizes things on her own without consulting others. The brother constantly seems to be interacting with us as a family, even when I give gifts to the daughter and pictures of our boys. I would appreciate any information you could share.
Holiday Unhappy
To Holiday, It makes sense that you would desire a memorable Christmas season and to be taken into consideration. Even if it’s painful to be overlooked, you can still make the holiday special. You can arrange a trip to see (if you’re a kid reading this, turn away) another Santa at another house, tearoom, or shop, assuming you haven’t excited your kids about the sold-out Santa.
It appears that a pattern of behavior rather than this one incident is the main source of tension in this situation. She seems overly self-absorbed to you. The Santa event might not have had such an effect if you weren’t already thinking about it. I believe you’ll be better just embracing this aspect of her personality because you reside in separate nations, she’s sociable, and the families aren’t at conflict, as you mentioned. You might even be able to see certain qualities in her that you really like if you adjust your expectations.
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