- megz06
- 7 years ago
- Wedding: July 2012
Just had to share–
I love getting Christmas letters and reading what blessings everyone received during the year. We received quite a few yesterday, and our favorite has to be DH’s great aunt “Mary” and her husband “George.” Mostly because DH just makes a face and shakes his head at how pompous it sounds.
George and Mary are all about money. You can actually hold a conversation with George, but Mary will always turn the focus back to her and her riches. George came from money, and Mary obviously married into it (though she does have a good job). She always makes sure to remind you that her son and his wife have rented out all their lodges, sold all the Vipers they raced, and built a sailboat to sail the world soon, while her daughter is still married to a refined Frenchman that owns a very prestigious and successful car company. Not to mention the fact that this year they flew in her granddaughter for a day from ski camp so she could at least eat one slice of turkey with them. She constantly talks about what big trips they took, their season tickets to the theater, opera, and symphony, how rich their kids are, and how we, meaning everyone back home where she came from, would be so lucky to be in her shoes for a day to experience all she has.
Back in 2011 I won a trip through work to go to Puerto Rico. It was an amazing experience I can only hope to partake in again one day. We had such a great time. That same year, George and Mary went to Cairo, Egypt. We went to an event for DH’s great grandma, and everyone was really excited to hear how our trip went. Of course this meant the focus was off Mary, so she decided to stick a few digs in there.
Mary: Where did you go again?
Me: We went to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Mary: *cackled that kind of rich lady laugh* George, did you hear? They went to Puerto Rico for a ‘vacation’.
Me: It was actually really fun and nice there. We enjoyed ourselves. Plus we can’t complain. It was completely paid for by my work. Otherwise I am not sure we’d have been able to go.
Mary: Oh, well, see, we can travel within the United States any day of the week, so we needed an adventure like Cairo. We are SO fortunate not to have to be reduced to limiting ourselves when it comes to travelling.
Yeah, that convo ended quickly.
I found it amusing when I got her Christmas letter. Last year they went to Greece, and so this year they went to…Puerto Rico. I had to laugh because of what I remembered she said, and I was amused at one such paragraph in her letter:
“The rest of our year was pretty routine if you call travelling every month routine! We visited [family] in Washington before travelling to the Shakespeare Festival, and of course we had to take our annual trip-[George]’s choice, so we went to Puerto Rico. We’ve nearly exhausted all the exotic places in the world, so we are down to REALLY civilized locations!“
We both about pooped ourselves when we read that. Of course, DH, who has a hard time stomaching her, started talking in a very rich accent and asking me to “devein my jumbo shrimp, peasant.”
She really is quite a peach. When planning our wedding we had a lot of troubles with SIL and the dress that DH’s grandma told her about since my SIL blabbed it to everyone, and Mary actually told me that if I would have chosen a more sophisticated choice and color perhaps SIL would be more inclined to wear it, but she said she “understands” that I would have a budget since I come from a middle class family. She then went on to reiterate that she is fortunate her children didn’t have to suffer with budget restraints when planning their black tie affairs.
*barf* Anyway, we hardly ever see her, and I find her letters more amusing than aimed at putting everyone down. If money is what is important to her, she successfully outlined that in her letter. May she continue to be blessed 🙂