Split Families Two

Well, she's done it again: today is the day AFTER Christmas, and my son still doesn't have his son. Now we have to pick the boy up at 10 AM this morning. Connor has again missed out on celebrating Christmas with his father's family, and will have it alone later today. For the record, I went back into our calendar and my photo albums, and verified that the only holiday that Ryan has had Connor since Thanksgiving of 2014 was on the Fourth of July, even though six of the holidays this year fell on weekends when he was supposed to have him anyway. And not only has she succeeded in preventing Connor from spending time with his father, she even turns the situation around and blames Ryan for the last-minute change. Unbelievable.  Then she tried to tell Ryan that he had Connor on Thanksgiving, so that meant that she should have Connor for all of Christmas. P.S. he did not have Connor on Thanksgiving - or Halloween, or Labor Day, or even my birthday last March.   She must think we are all idiots. A Court-order visitation schedule is the only option left.  I hope Ryan files the paperwork soon. This all needs to be in writing. She doesn't know how to share, nor does she play well with others.

Split Families

I have two grandsons. Each one is the only biological cousin to the other. My older grandson has parents who are divorced.  His mother is my younger son's former wife. They have legal joint custody on paper, but in fact, my son's ex-wife takes complete control over decisions. On paper, they are supposed to share visitation on major holidays like Christmas, but in fact, we have not seen our grandson for a major holiday since Thanksgiving of 2014.  As a result, he has not seen his younger, and only, cousin in more than a year.  Until my son can take her back to court and force her to change the way she treats him and their son, this is likely to continue. She seems to go out of her way to deny our grandson the opportunity to share celebrations with his father's family, and to get to know his paternal blood relatives. She also changes plans at the last minute, and never seems to be able to make a definite commitment as to pick-up time until the morning of, often resulting is disruption to our schedule and/or our plans.  She did it again today, which is Christmas Day, when our son was supposed to pick up his son at noon.  Suddenly, she needs to have their son with her as she travels from place to place today, and now my son can't pick up his son until this evening, when Christmas is virtually over and the rest of our family is gone. The boy again has missed another chance to see his cousin, as that family comes to us on Christmas Eve, and leaves on Christmas Day to go to my daughter-in-law's family.  2016 is a Leap Year, meaning that the next Christmas will fall on a Sunday. If the planning goes right, my son will have his son on that weekend. Then we may finally get the celebration we have been wishing for. One can only hope.

Electronic Cards

    
I've decided that I don't like eCards. You can't touch them; you can't hold them; you can't save them.  You can print them out, but it just isn't the same as receiving one in the mail. Real cards cost money, the stamp used to mail them also costs money.  That makes real cards a gift, and one that gives joy to the person receiving it. I don't think I will ever send an eCard to anyone, unless it's an invitation to a spur-of-the-moment party or something like that, but if it's an important party, like a wedding or anniversary celebration, I will always send a real card. I love all my friends and family, and my bought-and-mailed cards to them are my gift to them. I guess I'm just old-fashioned that way.