Get ready for the crockpot Christmas saga! TikToker Mandi (@mandiiikayyy) is sharing a wild holiday story from Holly Shoemaker (@thehollyshoemaker) involving three crockpots, petty gift-giving, and family drama.
Nearly two decades ago, Holly’s mom asked if she needed a crockpot because she had just gotten a new one. Holly was thrilled about the seemingly thoughtful and practical gift.
“I was newly married, and we didn’t have much in the way of cookware, so I was rather excited about it, thanked her for it, and happily took my crockpot home,” Holly said.
About a week later, her grandmother called and offered her another crockpot, as she had also gotten a new one. Holly gladly accepted and thanked her for it. A couple of weeks later, it was Christmas Eve. Holly and her new spouse went to her grandmother’s for the family dinner.
Her brother received a very nice letterman’s jacket for his junior year of high school, as well as a second car. He wrecked the first one and would eventually wreck the second one. He also got tickets to see his favorite football team and fourth-row center seats to see Trans Siberian Orchestra.
“Then came out my gifts, one large and one small,” recalled Holly. “I decided to open the small one first, with my mother saying she thought that I would like the color. It was half-used, broken lipstick, admittedly a very pretty color. That’s not the point. I smiled and thanked her.”
Both her mother and grandmother watched in anticipation as she opened the larger gift. It was another crockpot, and they had gotten it on sale with their two other crockpots that they had purchased a few weeks ago. Holly chuckled, thanked them, and said she would add it to her collection.
Apparently, that was not the right response because later that evening, her mother and grandmother pulled her aside and lectured her about how she should be ashamed of herself and should be thankful that she got anything at all for Christmas.
They told her that she needed to get a real job, start going to church again regularly, and focus on starting a family with her now ex-husband.
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This was very typical behavior of theirs, and over the years, Holly has developed thick skin against their words. Her grandmother is bipolar, and her mother has borderline personality disorder, but that was no excuse for their terrible treatment of her.
They had been holding a grudge against her for keeping in contact with her father, even though it had been three years since her parents’ divorce and her mother had since remarried.
Her parents had gotten divorced due to her mother’s infidelity, and her father had given her mother everything she wanted in the divorce to keep things as amicable as possible.
So, when Holly didn’t have a big emotional reaction to the crockpot, they decided to let her know how awful they thought she was.
She stuck around for another 30 minutes before heading home. She cried the entire 20-minute drive home, but at least she didn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry at the dinner.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
