I will never forget the Christmas that we were separated & AH had not made it for Christmas Eve's at my mom's because he was "so sick" and then the next morning he was MIA as well. DD somehow ended up sleeping in that morning & I was sitting there sweating bullets over not being able to reach him via phone or text, not sure what to tell DD & not sure how to go about doing the whole Santa thing without him. (Not for him, mind you, but I didn't want to ruin DD's holiday). We do the holiday at my house - my sister & kids & mom come over in the mid-morning, we open gifts & eat a huge brunch.... and I was at a loss for what how in the world I was going to explain it all. My mother used to get very, very uneasy when conflict rose so my codie self couldn't figure out who needed the most coddling; her, DD or AH. Never entered my mind to put myself into the equation.
He had been staying with his aunt on the other side of town but she had moved out of state just a few weeks before so I had no way of knowing what was happening.... remember he was a secret drinker so I wasn't even aware that all these "sicknesses" were really hangovers & otherwise self-induced. I actually felt bad for him, too sick to enjoy the holidays, how horrible!!
He showed up literally minutes before DD woke -I was happy for her that her holiday wasn't scarred, but I could have killed him sitting there listening to his load of BS.
My birthday is also just before Christmas & he's managed to forget it TWICE.