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I canceled the holidays while pregnant, and my entire family is furious at me. I'm eight months pregnant right now with my second baby, and the due date is mid-December. Literally right between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My doctor told me the baby could come any time in that three-week window. For the past five years since I married my husband Ryan, we've done this insane holiday schedule. Every Thanksgiving, we drive an hour and a half to his extended family's house and stay the whole weekend. Then for Christmas, we drive two and a half hours to my parents' place, and stay for like four days. We come home on Christmas Eve completely exhausted, then spend Christmas day and the next few days at his parents' house. It's always been chaos. My daughter Mia gets car sick. We're hauling presents and luggage everywhere. And by the time the holidays are over, I need a vacation. This year, when Ryan asked what I wanted to do, I was honest. I said we could probably do thanksgiving with his family if we stay close by. But for Christmas, I don't want to make any plans at all. I told him if we feel up to it in the moment, great. If he and Mia want to go somewhere without me, fine. But I'm not promising anything when I could literally be in labor. Ryan completely understood. He's been amazing through this whole pregnancy. We called both families in October to give them plenty of warning. We explained the situation, said we'd be staying local for the holidays this year. Everyone said they totally got it and that they'd come visit us instead once the baby arrived. That lasted about two weeks. Then my mom started texting me pictures of Mia from last Christmas, with captions like, "Remember how much fun we had? Won't she be sad to miss this?" I ignored it at first, but she kept going. She called Ryan and asked if he could bring Mia to their house for a few days while I stayed home. She said they'd make sure Mia didn't miss out on family traditions just because I was being difficult. Being difficult, like growing a human wasn't a good enough excuse. My sister joined in, too. She kept posting on Facebook about how excited her kids were to see their cousin at Christmas and how sad everyone would be if we didn't come. She tagged me in every single post. Then last week, my mother-in-law called and said she had a solution. She wanted to have Christmas at our house this year. She said they could all come to us, about 15 people total, and we wouldn't have to travel anywhere. She acted like she was doing us this huge favor. Ryan was on speakerphone, and I watched his face change. He said no immediately. His mom tried to keep talking, but he cut her off and said, "We're not hosting anyone, mom. We need to keep things quiet and flexible. We'll let you know when you can visit after the baby comes." She got really quiet and then said fine in this cold voice and hung up. The next day, Ryan's brother texted him saying we were being selfish and that we're ruining Christmas for everyone. He said I should be able to handle a few guests and that women have babies all the time without canceling major holidays. My dad called yesterday and said I was depriving Mia of memories with her grandparents. He said I'm using this pregnancy as an excuse to isolate their granddaughter. When I tried to explain that I might literally be in the hospital, he said that's why Ryan and Mia should still come without me. Like they want my husband to leave me alone with a newborn to go party with their family. Both families are now in this group chat together, planning their own holiday gathering and making passive-aggressive comments about how some people care more about family than others. I'm moving to Spotify, search Koala Reads, and hit Follow.