I thought I'd be lucky and skirt China's biggest human migration during this Spring Festival travel rush period, avoiding preparing dozens of gifts for relatives and being interrogated by them on when exactly I will have children of my own. I planned to spend the holiday in the Philippines with my husband.

But it all went wrong the moment I told my family my travel plans, one month before the festival.

My mum sent me the phone numbers of my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and asked me to give them greeting calls on Spring Festival Eve when I would be in Manila. She also asked that I send them gifts from the Philippines.

I could hardly say no because it took much of my strength to get her to accept my travel plans.

So the first two days in the Philippines, my husband and I went through different department stores and markets and bought gifts of worth 2,000 yuan ($320) in total for our relatives.

A new problem arose when I tried to send them back to my hometown, because the delivery company would not accept any liquid or cream. So I had to replace some of my gifts, which took another afternoon.

On Spring Festival Eve, I sat in a local McDonald's making greeting calls. No restaurants were still serving dinner by the time I finished, so I had McDonald's for my first dinner of the new year.

My nightmare had only begun - I discovered my mother-in-law and several of her relatives moved into my house for the holidays.

I have no idea when and how she got the keys. She only explained that she did not want to disturb our holiday. 

My parents would not go into my room without my permission, but my mother-in-law just walked into my house without saying even a word about it. I suddenly felt my private life was intruded upon.

That incident changed my mood from bad to worse. On my way back, I received a phone call from my mother, in which she said she handed out around 2,000 yuan worth of red envelopes on my behalf. I did not escape that tradition either.

So my first Spring Festival away from home ended with my privacy violated by my mother-in-law and owing my own mother 2,000 yuan I had not agreed to borrow.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.