Season of goodwill and all that...

[frog]

Why does Christmas seem like such an ordeal from the safe distance of November? :lol:

As little man will only be 9 months we asked MIL and my mum to only get him one thing. MIL obliges and shows us what she likes then orders it. My mum eventually got something he would love that isn't an almost-duplicate present (already had that rant! :wink: ). Now when I speak to her it's 'I've just got him a ... for christmas too' :yeahright: maybe I'm mean but I think 3 nice pressies are plenty for a 9 month old. We're not talking little things you pick up for a fiver here, we're talking things that would be a 'main' pressie imo :yeahright:

I *know* she's excited, we all are but she asks what MIL has got, makes sure she's stuck at one present, then goes off like a shopping whirlwind. She seems to have some sort of problem with MIL and 'outdoing' her wrt Struan, but all MIL has ever done is extend extremely generous hospitality and friendship to my mum :-(

She also 'told' me that we were going to her for chirstmas dinner. Yes, mum :-( thankyou but at almost 8 months pg and with a 9 month old I don't fancy spending 2 unnecessary hours in a car on packed roads surrounded by nobs who are still half-cut from the night before :hissyfit: The initial arrangement had been she would come here on christmas eve and stay till boxing day, which she was happy with, but not now :huh: I don't mind doing christmas dinner, it's just like a big sunday roast and it doesn't bother me. Plus that way I get crispy roast parsnips and spuds as opposed to hot but soggy 'exxon valdez' ones :teehee:

Anyway, I said I'd rather not travel and didn't she want to come here anymore and she huffed and said she supposed MIL could come too *sigh* :yeahright:

Now I imagine you're picking up the theme here! :shock: There are however many shopping days till christmas and I'm already wishing it was boxing day :hissyfit:

Oh another thing :wink: is that she asked last night what DH wanted (taking a pause from sticking the knives in his back for a moment) and asked what I was getting. DH loves a good single malt and I have spent a lot of time this year tracking down his all time favourite- which is fairly rare and fairly expensive- so it's a pretty special present :nod: So she says she'll get him a bottle of Chivas Regal (nice enough for a blended but not really the same thing at all). Why ffs? :hissyfit: I'd given her ideas of things she could pick up for him but no, she has to 'dilute' the thing I've put a lot of effort into :-( One bottle of really good scotch would be an 'ooh thanks for that' but it's going to turn into 'oh another bottle, gee thanks you imaginative lot' :sigh:

Season of goodwill my ass :cry: :bwahaha:

Anyone else want to went their 'rellies+christmas=woes' here then? :lol:

[Lois Lane]

Oh Frog I feel your pain!:hug: We had our family christmas row back in September with the outlaws!!! We weren't sure how this baby was going to be born (my due date is 22 December!) so we'd made no solid plans but for some reason the outlaws thought we were going to them for Christmas (we were with them last year). When we decided on an elective c-section before Christmas we asked my parents if we could go to them as we didn't see them last year and I want to spend it with them and my new baby niece.

The outlaws went totally mental - screaming and ranting at poor DH! They said they were coming home especially from their holiday 'to host Christmas' and DH went mental back asking them why they weren't coming back to see their grandchildren:angry: He was devastated as they basically said that, had they not been hosting christmas, they wouldn't have come home from the US until APRIL - by which point DD2 would be 4 months old!!!!!!!:angry:

ANYWAY we are still going to my Mums and sod the outlaws. I've said as a compromise that we can have a christmas with them when we get back from my folks as I'm not carting all the presents down to Wales with us - as well as all the stuff a newborn will need. So they will still get to see the kids open their presents just a few days later.

Families eh? Who'd have them?????

[Chocolate Lips]

You have my sympathies, however I have so far eluded Christmas rows and hissy fits.

Last year being 38 weeks pregnant I refused to move and said people could come to us, we spent Christmas Day on our own as we wanted and then OH's family (parents, sister and sisters boyfriend) came round for tea. Well I spent all day preparing a wonderous spread and they were 2 hours late. I was fuming, and starving and have already had a hissy fit behind the scenes telling OH that I AM NOT doing that again this year, as why were they 2 hours late - they were in the pub which was obviously more important!

[*Marti*]

Jeez, who needs xmas eh??

We really dont know what to do this year. I normally go to my mums but last year she had a massive argument with her OH over roast potatoes:rolleyes: , which tainted the day. Plus shes not properly living in the house where we will have xms dinner, so no decos, and i want it to be nice for Clio.

My Dad may be coming back to mine if he has a divorce, so in that case, i will be cooking.

Other option is to go to MILs but she doesnt cook much! (I want a good feast!) and i dont know if i can watch about 7 hrs of her cooing over Clio cause it mkes me want to puke!

I suppose i might go to MILs but offer to cook for them, so i can make a feast:grin:

[Sazzle]

We have never hosted Christmas dinner and never will if I can help it; I prefer to go to someone else's house, eat their food, drink their wine then come home to a nice tidy house :teehee:

This year we're going to my family for Christmas dinner at the normal time (1ish) then over to the in-laws' for a late one, so two chrimbo dinners, and no washing up! :clap: :teehee:

[*kate*]

:teehee: we have the same type of mother except yours takes a pause from sticking knives into DH's back - mine doesn't!

And Christmas dinner - the last one of hers I attended (1993 :wink: ) she put sweetcorn on the plate :rolleyes: ah, that well known seasonal vegetable!

I reckon Chrimbo brings out the worst in some people, from October onwards there's various things I get annoyed about/that wind me up and the best time of Christmas Day for me is when the rellies go home and it's just our little family. Families all "do" Christmas differently and when people's expectations and ideas for a wonderful time aren't met, then you get miffed faces.

My mother makes it plain that she hates coming to us for Christmas, makes faces at smoked salmon ("but it's raw"), pushes the turkey around on her plate, and says ":yuck:" to Christmas pud. I'd find it very difficult to be rude to someone (let alone my own daughter) who's invited me for a lovely meal. Then she falls asleep, which signals to the rest of us just how bored she is.

Tis the season to be jolly.

[frog]

And Christmas dinner - the last one of hers I attended (1993 :wink: ) she put sweetcorn on the plate :rolleyes: ah, that well known seasonal vegetable!
Original! :tongue:

She's been here tonight and I just wasn't in the mood for her at all as FIL has been ill today and we're worried about him. She was saying about 'all the presents' she's bought for Struan :doh: and then sent DH out in her car because it was making a funny noise and was obviously dangerous :loco: he jumped at the chance to get away for some obscure reason :teehee: I could pages just on tonight's escapades but I think chocolate and a nice bubble bath are a better way to go!

[Libra]

We're sodding everyone this year and going to the next door neighbours for dinner!! :grin:

[dingbatsbird]

And the telly always reports in amazement at "57 million Britons will take holidays abroad this Christmas" etc:puzzled:

Is it any wonder??!!??

You all have my sympathies :smile:

Been there, done that, and decided Christmas is not worth the agro!! :tongue:

[Sarasue]

Well, my sister PROMISED that she would do Xmas this year for the first time ever and then decided to get pregnant with a due date of, you guessed it, Xmas day.

I am holding her to her promise though :tongue: and have told her that we expect the whole catastrope :lol:

[cherry fizz]

And Christmas dinner - the last one of hers I attended (1993 :wink: ) she put sweetcorn on the plate :rolleyes: ah, that well known seasonal vegetable!


oooh, oooh! i can beat that. 2 years ago i went to my MIL for Xmas day and they

*gave me a keyring instead of a cracker, because crackers are a 'waste of money'. well, sure they are but by the same measure so is a keyring, decorations, the electricty on the lights, a xmas tree et al. but then they don't really have any of those either so i'm guessing the argument would fall flat.

*served a plain microwaved dry chicken breast, with a microwave steam bag of vegs (carrot batons, tiny broccoli, sweetcorn), a slice of ham (i don't eat pork) and some stuffing (ditto) and some boiled potatoes.

* had a conversation about how silly i was for not wanting to have 'Father Christmas' turn up and give out gifts and yet I go to church for the nativity. Now I'm not coming down one side or the other on the secular/christian stories of Christmas, I like both traditions, but to ridicule my religious beliefs over secular ones when they clearly didnt even grasp the secular tradition of, oooh, i dont know, EDIBLE FOOD, seemed a bit off-kilter to me.

this was the same year MIL gave us individually wrapped bags of supermarket crisps and rolls of sellotapes as presents too.

sorry for the hijack, i was just delighted someone else got sweetcorn for xmas dinner and thought it was weird!!! :happyno:

[dingbatsbird]

I broke away from this thread a minute ago to check my new email and found a friend had sent me....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110059357384 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110059357384)

Any takers?

[choccy eating monster]

Hee hee - they will be beating a path to his door!

Xmas Day will be spent at my mums - which I LOVE. We always have a laugh - we have wrapping paper ball fights and used WD40 to unblock the gas jets in the oven when they got covered in turkey fat. My OH almost lost his eyebrows hee hee.

Then one year my sis kept refilling mums glass behind her back so she added too much salt to the gravy. What was worse, she asked me how to counteract this and I was p1ssed so told her to add sugar. She was so p1ssed she actually listened. Oh dear!!:doh: :lol:

But, on Boxing Day his parents will come round ours (can't be arsed tbh, cos I have a small baby) and they are REALLY sedate and spend the whole time looking on ebay for collectable china dogs and war statues. Snore!!:brainache: Especially since I am normally trying to watch something like "VH1 cheesiest Christmas songs".

I would be happier going round theirs - they can do all the work then, but since they got a horrible Rotweiller in 1998 I haven't been round there for dinner.