Complaining about relatives.

My parents/our family got two Christmas cards this year. (This is normal, since we don't send out any ourselves.) One of them was from one of my mom's work colleagues. Fine. The other was from my cousin (my mom's niece), her husband, and their child. This is the one I want to complain about. The card was your standard pre-printed holiday greeting, and then it was signed "happy holidays," followed by their names. And that's it. At this point, I don't really object, but I find it kinda stupid to send a card that clearly has no thought behind it except "must send them a holiday card." But then today my sister, my dad, and I went to visit my grandmother (mom's mom; cousin's grandmother) who is living in a retirement residence and who is not doing well at all . . . and I spotted that same xmas card in her suite. My cousin, living in the same general area as all of us, is of couse aware of her grandmother's health. I pointed the card out to my sister, who immediately opened it up to see what was written. And, guess what? The exact same thing: "happy holidays" followed by their names. Also, this was apparently written in English! (All these people are francophone.) My mom told me later that my cousin's been to visit her grandmother once in her residence. This is, well, kinda shocking. I mean, she's an adult (over 30), and quite able to go visit once in a while. I live in Toronto and I've been several times! I still feel bad about not seeing her more often, but that's because I have a conscience.

This is just one more piece of evidence proving that my cousin and her husband have no souls. They are nice people, but they are completely without substance. All they want is to gradually make more and more money, move into bigger and bigger houses, and generally live their lives like richer and richer people. They care not for self-enlightenment or learning or, well, thinking about the world. Example: They registered for their son's 1st birthday at a big toy store. (My mom was disgusted and brought some books instead.) I haven't ever seen this child (who is now more than 2 years old), and neither has my sister (who lives in Montreal), but I don't feel badly about it. I just don't have much to say to this family. It's too bad, really, but what can I do. I might be being unkind, but I think I'm basically right about them.

Anyways, my grandma was apparently a little better today than she was the last time my parents saw her, but not much. Sigh. Oh well. She's really out of it, and needs to move to a higher level of care pronto.

Yesteday was another family-filled day, this time with part of my mom's side of the family. It was fine, though we have thoughts about a couple of the kids. Ah well. What's Christmas without bitching about relatives, eh?

Also, to quote my sister: "this house is bad for my health!" Seriously. All we want to do here is watch TV, stay up all night, and eat junk food. My sister and I watched 6 hours of TV last night (11pm-5am). Oy. But I better eat up now because soon enough I'll be in Washington and will have to fend for myself. Double oy.