What's the worst thing that's happened at your family gathering?

Grandma died sitting on the couch while we all thought she was sleeping.

So we went on with dinner.

We all ate, drank and were merry until the wee hours of the morning when somebody tried to wake her up.

Nobody knew what to think about the fact we partied next to Grandma's corpse for like six hours.

Oh, I think I'd feel awful. Like maybe with time, that would heal it a bit,

maybe be a little bit funny to some degree, but that's still kind of grim. This didn't happen to me,

but I watched it happen and it was awful. My cousin was pregnant from a guy who she had only been

dating for a few months, but he was a good guy.

On Christmas Eve, she invited him to our family gathering, and when we were exchanging presents,

he grabbed a small box from the tree and was two seconds from getting down on one knee

when that uncle jokingly says, God, I hope you're not proposing.

Everyone laughs, and this guy is in a half bent knee, half standing pose and just

looks up at that uncle and slowly powers through it and slowly gets down on one knee and proceeds to

ask her if she'll marry him. She said yes and they're engaged, but it was one of the worst 45 seconds

of my life. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's the worst 45 seconds of his life. You don't

get to claim that. And honestly, good for that guy for being able to power through it. I don't

exactly agree with people getting married after a few months, but they do them. Thanksgiving

about 1985, family gathering at my parents' home. Mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma's, aunts, uncles,

cousins, etc., all watching football. Cousin picks up the remote to mess with the volume but turns

on the VCR on accident. Full-blown smut fills the screen. Dad leaps, grabs the remote and fumbles

frantically to turn it off. Bible thump a brother and sister-in-law snatch up their kids and leave.

...