Getting out of holiday travel - any suggestions?

you could get pregnant..

Have him tell his family that you are having an affair.

1. expired passport

2. fear of pat downs and body scans

3. violently ill

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Have him tell his family that you are having an affair.

Scratch that. I forgot you said they were European. Not a good enough excuse.

Another idea: just tell them you don't want to go. You see them twice per year. No big deal.

Say you've got to do jury service and it is illegal for you to get out of it.

Europeans (other than Brits) don't know too much about jury service as they don't have it.

This one has no down-side.

you went scuba - diving for a class and now you are not allowed to fly

have you considered that your husband may tell them the truth and that you are lying when he is there???

also, do you need company for the holidays?? you sound a little down and like maybe you could use someone to talk to, maybe chat on the internet a bit, then go for a run together and take it from there

How about you have a race to run?

Excuses needed wrote:

My husband is not from the US, but we travel to Europe every summer and Christmas to see his family. This year, we had some unplanned expenses and airfare was unusually expensive, so I cannot afford to go with him this Christmas.

This is strange to me. Aren't you two a married couple in which individuals make decisions together? Is your husband ok with just leaving you at home, alone for the holidays? It seems to me that expenses are shared in a marriage and that if both individuals can not afford to go then they should simply spend the holiday together instead of one being directly left out.

The best way to deal with this is BOTH of you just be honesgt and tell them that you can not afford the expense of the holiday season trip.

If it is important to them to have BOTH of you there they will figure out a way to get you BOTH there.

Being fiscally prudent in these times is nothing to be ashamed of.

Nothing is really going to satisfy them so you probably shouldn't kill yourself trying to think of something. But if your parents are alive, you could say that your family also has holiday traditions and you're going to eb with them this year. You could enhance the effect by having your husband suggest to them that he's planning to go with you to your family's place this year rather than visit them. Faced with the prospect of not having him at all may make having only him seem a lot better.

Thanks for the tips so far. I usually think honesty is the best policy, but not in this case. If you have a critical family, you can understand, but if not, it is hard to see. Being honest and telling them we have financial problems will result in a very unpleasant experience involving telling us that were are financially irresponsible. This would then continue regularly for many months and possibly lead to other criticism.

I will be staying with my family and get to see my brother's family, which I haven't done in the past four Christmases, so that will be good. I won't be alone, and he and I are okay with that for this year.

His family won't be happy either way, but we are trying to find the least damaging way to explain my not traveling this holiday season.

No matter how critical they are being honest with your family should not be optional.

I can not afford to travel this year either and my family understands. They are not judgemental as a group but I'll hear some sh!h from a couple of them.

You probably don't want to hear this but it is obvious your own marriage and your husband's family are pretty low on your list of priorities. You shouldn't be surprised if your husband serves you with separation or divorce papers when he returns.

STHU Night Runner, HRE offered a diplomatic solution you hairy troll.

Night Runner wrote:

You probably don't want to hear this but it is obvious your own marriage and your husband's family are pretty low on your list of priorities. You shouldn't be surprised if your husband serves you with separation or divorce papers when he returns.