With the holiday season fast-approaching, it's time to start bracing yourself for an onslaught of family time. Yes, you're probably going to have to field an unholy amount of questions about your post-college ~future~ (#lame), and you might get stuck at the kids' table with your tween cousins (#ughhh), but TBH, it could be worse. You could be a Salvatore.

Family relationships are complicated, but few families (i.e. The Mikaelsons) come as close to total dysfunction as the Salvatores on "The Vampire Diaries." From a mother who would rather create a new family than hang out with you, to an abusive father, the Salvatores are pretty messed up. Here are all the reasons you should be thankful that you're not a member of the Salvatore family this holiday season:

That time Damon killed his "uncle" Zach.

Zach Salvatore was actually Damon and Stefan's distant nephew, but Stefan publicly referred to him as his uncle since Zach was human and appeared to be older than him. Although he trusted Stefan, Zach and Damon didn't have the best relationship. In fact, he even told Stefan to find any way to kill Damon. It might have had something to do with Damon killing off the majority of the Salvatore bloodline. Zach was the main vervain supplier for The Founder's Council in Season 1, but after Damon snapped his neck, the elder Salvatore bro took over his responsibilities within the council.

When Giuseppe killed his sons.

Giuseppe Salvatore was a poor excuse for a father. After the "death" of his wife Lily, Giuseppe turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism. His relationship with Damon was strained, to say the least, but it was Stefan who ultimately killed his dear pops. Giuseppe killed his two sons in cold blood for helping Katherine, a known vampire in Mystic Falls, escape, but he didn't realize that he killed them with vampire blood in their systems. He would later regret that decision.

When Stefan killed his dad.

When newly turned vampire Stefan visited his dad later that evening, he just couldn't control his blood lust and, whelp, there went Poppa Salvatore.

When Lily faked her death.

In Season 6, we learned that Lily was actually a vampire and had faked her death in 1858, abandoning her family and her two sons. After Lily was turned into a vampire, she fled to Europe and became a Ripper, slaughtering over 3,000 people in terribly gruesome ways. Like mother, like son... we guess.

Damon and Stefan fell in love with the same girl... twice.

You can trace most of Damon and Stefan's issues back to one person: Katherine Pierce. She really f--ked them up. Katherine played the Salvatore brothers for her own gain. She was manipulative, and although she would later admit that she truly loved Stefan (sorry, Damon), it was too little, too late for Stefan, who had already fallen in love with her doppelgänger Elena.

When Damon told Elena he loved her.

You'd think Damon would have learned his lesson after the whole Katherine debacle, but NOPE. He went ahead and fell in love with Elena. In Season 2, he admitted his true feelings to Elena, telling her that he loved her. It was a confession he needed to make to Elena -- but it was also one he needed her to forget.

When Delena finally set sail.

For three seasons, Damon and Elena tiptoed around their undeniable chemistry. That is, until they finally acted upon it in Season 3. Though Stefan was still very much in the picture at the time (ouch), Damon and Elena just couldn't hold their mutual attraction towards one another in any more. After a long day on the road, Elena feelings ultimately boiled over outside of their motel room, where she and Damon shared their first epic kiss.

That time Lily convinced Kai to put a sleeping spell on Elena.

Don't expect Lily Salvatore to win any "Mother of the Year" awards any time soon on "The Vampire Diaries." It was revealed that Lily was the person responsible for convincing Kai to curse Elena to the Deep Sleep. If she couldn't be happy, then she didn't want Damon to be happy either... we guess? Either way, that was NOT COOL, Lily.

When Damon killed a member of Lily's Heretic family.

Damon wanted to send a warning to Lily and her Heretic family: leave Mystic Falls. Unfortunately for Damon and Co., killing Malcolm -- a beloved member of Lily's family -- only ignited a war between the Salvatores and Mommy Dearest.

Stefan tried to kill his mom's One True Love.

In retaliation for what Julian did to his first love Valerie and their unborn child, Stefan nearly set Julian ablaze at Lily's "peace-making" homecoming party. Things got very, very ugly in the Salvatore mansion.

When Damon nearly killed Stefan because brothers.

To be fair, Damon was trying to kill Klaus. Stefan was more like collateral damage. That being said, this was the closest the brothers have been to legit killing one another for poor, sweet Elena.