Never feel like more of an Aspie than at Thanksgiving...

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I simply don't go to family gatherings anymore. My family has learned to accept this. When they come over to my house, I simply lock myself up in my bedroom.

I can relate. Yesterday I had to keep going outside by myself to recharge a little every once in a while. Luckily there was wine.

Luckily, my thanksgiving get-together only consisted of six people. Unluckily, two of those people were my girlfriend's aunt and uncle whom I had never met before, and I hadn't been told they were going to be there. Fortunately, they were nice people and also left me alone most of the day.

Also, I brought my kindle with me, which helped a lot.

Well, I totally get where you're coming from, but mine wasn't as bad as yours. Nobody really insisted in me talking, they just kinda let me do what I wanted to. My house definitely felt crowded though. I kept trying to walk somewhere to do something, and I had to keep going a different way, going around people, or standing there looking like an idiot while waiting for them to move... That was very annoying. Then a couple people commented on the fact that I was eating ham and pineapples instead of turkey(I f*****g hate turkey, so i just eat ham). And my girlfriend's mom asked "who bought stove-top stuffing?" when she saw the boxes. Initially that pissed me off, but I think that was because I was just in a sh***y mood because I felt crowded. They made homemade stuffing, but it was cooked in the turkey gizzard/giblets, whatever the hell, I'm not sure which is the right word, so it would taste like turkey, and I really don't like the taste of turkey at all. I never have. Plus half the stuffing was actually stuffed inside the turkey, so yeah, i'm definitely not eating that s**t.

Oh yeah, and my neighbor came over to talk about something, I don't remember what, but I made a comment about how I'd be pissed if I had to work at wal mart on thanksgiving. This prompted her to go into "condescending lecture mode," in which she proceeded to tell me how she's had to work most of her life on holidays, and how I would probably be upset if I had to go to the ER or needed an ambulance or police officer on thanksgiving and didn't have access to those things... Now THIS really pissed me off. I don't really care too much about holidays in the first place. They're ALL commercialized, and I don't agree with/don't care too much about what they are celebrating. So I would have absolutely no problem working on a holiday. But, I wouldn't want to work at a RETAIL STORE on thanksgiving, especially this year, since now they're starting black friday sales on thanksgiving. So... apparently my neighbor doesn't understand that there's a large difference in importance between retail clerks and emergency medical care people.

Other than that, I had a good thanksgiving. I got to spend it with my girlfriend's family, which, coincidentally, is more accepting of me than my own.

Last night, 14 relatives came to our small house for thanksgiving (with a total of 18 people in our house at once). I came extremely close to a shutdowm, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve that saved me. First, and perhaps the most important thing I did: since there was no room in the house without at least three people in it at a given time, I went from room to room. Clearly, the least crowded places were the kitchen (where everybody was too busy cooking or cleaning up to talk) and the outside patio (where people were smoking and using their cell phones). Secondly, when it was time to eat,I grabbed a dinner roll and got out quick. Forget the plate - go back and grab some food when people are going for seconds. Last thing I did to avoid overloading my senses was lock myself in the bathroom for a couple minutes when it was available so I could briefly recharge. On the plus side, the more people there are, the more likely people will scream at the NFL game on TV so you don't really have to talk to anyone.

There were a total of 7 of us, and it wasn't too bad. The actual thanksgiving dinner wasn't the worst of it. The worst part is that they aren't leaving yet. This is already day 3.

It depends what type of Thanksgiving you have to deal with I guess. Mine was about a 4 hour party where there was nowhere to escape. I had to talk most of the time ... I proceeded to sleep 12 hours the following night. That was my solution, but I know that's not viable for everyone...