Was your Christmas like this?

Family friend and stepgrandfather started talking about how Trump was "already having an effect on the economy" because gas was "finally 2.95" and that there was enough coal and gas in West Virginia to "power the whole country", that Joe Manchin was an evil liehbrul who stood up with HILLARY GODDAMN CLINTON and promised to shut down coal mines, that renewables were on their way out, that we needed to drill more, and that West Virginia would be one of the poorest states in the country if they closed down coal mines.

I only attend family holidays for my mother's sake, who had a rough time raising me and finally gets a 'normal' family life, if only her crippled son comes and participates. So I bit my tongue and ground my teeth together (in fact, even reciting this I can feel my fucking blood pressure rise) and endured some people who would never change their mind and are incapable of parsing facts.

My mother, incidentally, is religiously conservative, but also has always had a strong environmentalist streak.

I love in how many often self contradicting flavours humans come. Its horrible but also beautiful.
My grandpa use to be the atheist who debated street prosteltizers. He now is trump man talking bout the illegals.
People are bizarre. Bit tongue in same way for people you love who are there. Sucks that often they're the same people.
Good on you for seeing pushing past it. Part of what makes you more open minded than them.
Isn’t West Virginia already one of the poorest states in the country?
- Yeah. Really bit my tongue on that one.

Mostly on the same page with my in-laws, but they are more neoliberal than leftist (we’re working on it).

Still, where previously they had mourned Brian Thompson and bristled at our pro-Luigi stance, by the time we came back for Xmas they were like “Why is the news still talking about this guy? So many people have died since then! This is bullshit. The media is bought and paid for.”

Funny to see the propaganda machine backfire.

Funny to see the propaganda machine backfire.
The maga-ites in my family tried to employ a strategy shared on conservative social media, through my father to pressure me to keep my "commie" mouth shut and it backfired on them because they're unaware that I've been lending him the rent & medical bill money that they've refused to lend him. (He doesn't know that they're gifts that I never expect to get back).
I still think I'm lucky since they were at least willing to walk in egg shells around me while I visited out of fear of permanently alienating me like they did to my mother and sister.
However things will change if they ever realize that they need to help Dad/Grandpa/great-grandpa rather than buying a new mustang or buying a bigger house for themselves.

Unrelated, but I made eggnog for the first time this year and it was amazing! I will not be buying eggnog from the store any longer.

I've made it several times but a part of me still prefers the stuff that comes in a carton. I live in Ireland these days, so I couldn't get the mass produced stuff and I was thus was making it. Then an importer started getting stuff sent in and Ive been buying that since

My family told me I was crazy, that Trump wouldn't really put a 100% tariff on Chinese imports. They were the words straight out of his mouth. None of them knew who Peter Navarro is. I asked them if they solely voted for him because of his public racist remarks or what? It's sad when 60 year olds vote like teenagers think.

Ours was the sneak in eat and sneak out.

Eggnog? Yes. Made a large jug of Clyde's tequila-sherry eggnog.
Politics? No. At least, none I remember.

Close family couldn't gather, so most of my Christmas evening was spent in VR drinking with friends. I think I downed nearly half a liter in a card game called "Shitty".

Does this imply that American eggnog is alcoholic? I was told eggnog is what we call kogel mogel, which is just whipped egg and sugar, basically.

Yup, usually with brandy, rum, or cognac. You can buy it without alcohol but (at least in my experience) only kids really drink it that way.
- I have drank about 6 gallons of eggnog this holiday season. None of it has had alchol in it. Judging from how it sells at the grocery store only about 1/6th of eggnog is alcoholic
- Dang it, I wasn't updated on this... BRB, gotta put alcohol into my kogel mogel...
FWIK the general ingredients used in the US are milk, cream, whipped egg white, egg yolk, sugar, and nutmeg. The consistency is also usually close to what melted ice cream would be.
- I looked it up afterwards and yes, US eggnog is different from kogel mogel. For the latter you just whip egg with sugar and you're done. Former is much more involved, requires heating milk and stuff.