One mom, fed up with her drunken relatives, decides to ditch them this year.

Guest blogger Jane says: After a Thanksgiving filled with insulting, drunken relatives, we decided to try something new and not invite them for Christmas.

Sounds drastic -- and it is. We are just tired of being the hosts, which we always are, setting up, cleaning up and monitoring everyone's kids while the grown-ups sit around sipping wine and talking.

The worst part for my husband is that all our relatives are very liberal -- and so they are often discussing topics in strident tones that puts my husband in the uncomfortable position of zipping his lips or arguing with his guests. So, while refilling a wine glass, or washing the dishes, he has to endure a barrage of negative comments concerning his party and presidential choice.

One guest pulled aside my husband, who is a worship leader in a church, to explain how the Christian church had held back Western Civilization by about a thousand years. Now, whatever your religious or political convictions, is it OK to enter someone's house who you know holds certain views and insult said views?

The children, meanwhile, are like phantoms moving in and out of the scene because the conversations are not only not kid-friendly but also quite dull. There is no overt engagement with the kids unless it is have them to perform various instruments they play like trained chimps. Or, as my 13-year-old son says, to ask you questions like: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and after you answer, explain what a stupid choice that is.

So we decided that we want to have a different Christmas. The kind that includes what we like to do as a family.

I was feeling guilty, thinking, "But what about relational ties and that sense of family support and honoring our mother's and fathers etc..."

And then I thought of "Little House on the Prairie." They went out into the wilderness and couldn't invite their families even if they wanted to. So, we will just pretend we are on a different planet, the final frontier, and simply can't invite them. I feel better already!