Together at Christmas Puns

So it's Boxing day, 2021, and as I am writing this I am sitting in the living room with my Mum. The rest of my family are in the kitchen. It's been a nice time but God how I wish I was holding your hand. I am 29 years old and painfully single. I do not know what you look like, or when we will meet. A part of me worries that I will never meet you and I bumble along through life as a lonely traveller.

However a woman can dream, and thoughts of our first Christmas have brought so much comfort through the festive period.

Matching bed socks and pj's. Cuddly lie ins, and an indulgent breakfast in bed. A brisk stroll in the park with a fluffy, dopey dog. Your chuckle at the sight of my shite present wrapping, and the taste of buckfizz on your tongue as you kiss me tenderly.

Ugh. God. What I would give to crawl into your arms after a long day feasting and socialising.

But until then Queen, I hope you've had a fabulous Christmas 💕

Please excuse formatting issues, I am on mobile.

I (24f) came out to my friends at 16 as bisexual and am very open about my sexuality with pretty much everyone but my family, even strangers in the street. I have spent years hiding this from my family because my mother since I was young has made a good amount of bi-phobic and homophobic (but only toward gay women) comments. They actally died down when I was 16 after she found out that my ex is bi when he broke up with me and I sobbed because she said he was "tainted goods anyway". I think she may already know but stays in denial.

My mum is actually very accepting of gay men but dislikes lesbians and bisexuals. I guess she has that straight fear of "Does she want me?" with the lesbian thing and she thinks bi people are greedy so should "pick a side". She also holds women to a higher standard(?) because she thinks that we should have more self control. When I started hanging out with large groups of LGBTQA+ friends my mum actually used to call me a f*g hag "jokingly" and only stopped when my gay friend was over and very suddenly left after he overheard her call me it. We never got to hang out again, he thought I was a straight girl using him like a gay BFF accessory.

My older sister actually found out a while back when she bumped into somebody I was no longer friends with and he decided to out me to her as "revenge" for cutting him off. I was terrified for weeks that my whole family would find out but she never even brought it up with me and instead subtly opened up to me that she too is interested in both men and women. I guess we've both known about each other for a very long time but neither of us have actually said it to each other. She even speaks openly about her attraction to female celebrities in front of our mother who acts as if she's joking.

I had to bite my tongue yesterday when visiting as she commented that my new piercing makes me look "butch" and a word that rhymes with bike-y. When I heard those words I almost said "Well, I am a little bit" and physically left the room to stop myself doing so.

Its not that I am scared of the possible argument, I realised a while back that I think I am ready for this, its that the family has just had some really bad news. My grandfather has just been diagnosed with leukemia. Originally they thought it was just the early stages in his blood that could be treated easily but it turns out that the cancer has originated from his bones, which is much f

Every year my father think's it's hilarious to say "It's amazing, you were born a day before Jesus and are still with us."

I live at home. She’s invited herself round for Christmas. Without even asking. We already have a full house each Christmas with family and actually I wouldn’t consider her a very close friend so it will be weird to have her mingle with my family. Even my sisters boyfriend isn’t coming for Xmas dinner.

Now she keeps messaging me about hotels for next year because she’s convinced we are to take a 2 week holiday together. What? Since when. Again I don’t go on holidays with my best friends as next year I have 2 weddings so my holiday allowance is fully booked.

Please help. I’ve become her best friend but she isn’t mine. She’s an old school friend. We used to see each other once or twice a year. Now she wants to meet up all the time. She wants to live with me. She’s nice enough but like I said I’m not close with her at all and it’s freaking me out.

I feel like such a bad person for thinking this but she’s got her own friends she’s always hanging with. I wish she’d leave me alone

I’m (34F) married to my husband (31M) for five years. We’ve undergone two years of fertility treatments and I’m finally pregnant. His parents were aware we are undergoing treatment. Originally we were going to share the news of the pregnancy with them last weekend when we saw them in person for FIL’s birthday. However, earlier in the week my SIL(30F) got engaged.

I have a decent relationship with SIL. However, she is the kind of person who thrives on attention and wants to be the center of everything. As soon as we knew she was engaged I told my husband I wanted to hold off announcing so we didn’t steal her thunder because we know his parents will flip out when they find out about the baby. She wouldn’t flip out but I know it would hurt her feelings if she didn’t have her moment in the sun.

Right now we are committed to telling little whit lies to conceal the pregnancy for a few more weeks. The next time everyone will be together in person is Christmas. I would like to announce at the end of the evening after everyone had opened gifts as stuff winds down.

I’m just worried that I might be TA since the announcement will take the spotlight off of SIL, but I figured by that point she would have had 6 whole weeks to be celebrated.

By the nature of pregnancy I’m not going to be able to hide this forever. I’m just not sure how much time I need to wait so I’m not seen as a thunder stealer.

Happy Halloween!

Edit: looks like a few people have taken this post a bit more seriously than I intended 😏. Everybody that came to my house got candy, no questions asked.

My sister is an IT executive at JPMorgan. Extremely smart and been working there for 8+ years. She was kind enough to help me make my portfolio.

Here’s my ETF breakdown for a 29 year old with long term growth in mind.

VTI = 35%

FDIS = 20%

FTEC = 15%

VUG = 15%

SMH = 5%

FIW = 5%

VHT = 5%

This puts my Top 10 holdings at about:

5% Apple

5% Microsoft

5% Tesla

3% Nvidia

2% Home Depot

2% Taiwan Semi-conductor

1% Alphabet

1% ASML

1% Texas Instruments

0.97% Broadcom

Do with info as you want :)

EDIT: Great suggestion. Changing XLY to FDIS.