Basic story was that I had foreknowledge of how a particular Christmas Eve ended with a nameless horror getting me, only this time I was determined that it wouldn't. Or else I knew how things were going to go but was helpless to stop it. Or something.
Every step of the way, there was that sense of foreboding, knowing what was coming, unable to stop it. 90% of the dream took place in a variety of locations, all meant to be the same one but changing with each scene; the final scene took place in a version of the bunker with lots more patio doors. Finally, early on Christmas morning, I went to Mom: "We have got to get out of the house right now." Went to Dad's room (Dad was being played by someone else, a resident from the nursing home I worked in) and told him the same thing.
Out on the patio, Dad too cold in the December air, I asked Mom if she had a phone to call for help, but she didn't. I went to one of the several patio doors to go back inside and get one, only it was too late: the monster lurched into view, we all screamed, and I woke up.
A lot of weirdness in this one, including a segment where it's dark and none of the lights work and I'm terrified, which is a dream I haven't had for a long time. Plus side, there wasn't anything in the darkness in this version, which is an improvement over prior iterations: it was just because the power was out. That was pretty much where all this started, though.
Throughout the dream, there were moments where I thought, "Okay, last time I did A, so this time I'll do B." Attempting to change the outcome by changing the conditions, but there was a sensation of undoing mistakes to fix a bad situation. And at the end, there was a definite feeling that whatever that thing was, it couldn't get us because we were beyond its reach.
Dad being a different person--that's weird. Mom was her real self, at least at first, but may not have been later in the scene. The final scene was going to take place somewhere else, but at the last moment suddenly it was that weird over-windowed version of the bunker. Maybe that's the effect of the changes I made, doing B instead of A; every time I did B instead of A, it changed where the final scene took place?
In all probability there's no point to analyzing it. Chalk it up to anxiety and leave it at that. Certainly this looks like an amalgam of other anxiety dreams I've had in the past; the only thing missing was a tornado.
But although the ending was frightening, there was still the sense that the monster can't get us. Is it a nightmare if, at the end, you win?