WARNING! Lots of negative whining in this post!

You Have Been Warned!

Aren't the holidays fun? Full of love and family and fun and perfect gifts?

Ugh.

Xmas eve, we are trying to leave to go to the in-laws, and DD throws a full out fit. She wants to wear something "pretty" so works herself up to a screaming frenzy and refuses to wear anything (too tight, too small, too scratchy, it's dirty, don't like that kind of sleeve...). I tried. And I tried again. Then I yelled and went and sat in the van until she appeared, wearing her usual mismatched confortable clothing. We are told "DO NOT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THAT!!"

That pretty much set the scene for the evening.

DH's great uncle is on life support for collapsed lungs (he's 95 or so), so the phone is constantly ringing, DH's grandma is sleeping in her chair because she was at the hospital half the night with her brother (she's not in such good condition either).

DH's brother managed to come for about 2 minutes before leaving - he's on call and everytime he leaves, he gets called in again.

There are pumpkin pies sitting out on the counter, uncovered. DH goes and asks about them, and they are for the next day! So they are sitting out, unrefridgerated for who knows how long, uncovered in a house where the cat is allowed on the kitchen counters? DH found room for them in the fridge. (I did NOT eat the pie the next day).

MIL bumbles around, and is eventually convinced by DH that yes, she should put the food in the oven. She pulls it out again after maybe 10 minutes to make a plate for DH's brother to take with him, then tries to feed it to everyone.

It's cold. Things that really need to be cooked for food safety reasons... Over her protests, I remove everything but the sausage rolls from my kid's plates and insist the rest goes back in the oven to be properly cooked. Thank dog I brought nachos, vegetables and two types of dip, plus a container of my baking. But I think I'm about the only one who ate vegetables - healthy food, oh no, can't eat that!

DH got a bee up his butt about something, and while he played "santa" handing out the gifts, he secretly opened his gifts, hiding them and not thanking anyone - until people started getting upset about it and calling him on it. Lovely.

Most of the gifts were just fine. Everyone makes xmas lists so there isn't much surprise or enjoyment of your gifts. Just something off your list. The only weird thing I got was an Eclipse poster (as in the movie). Huh? Like I'm going to put a poster of teenagers on my bedroom wall? Too bad the poster was of the three, with Bella featured... I would have enjoyed a shirtless Jacob more...

Another oddity was I asked for a set of two vegetable peelers, one with a serrated blade for tomatoes. Well, I was only given one of them, and MIL said she liked the idea so she got one too. Huh, that means she kept the serrated one from the set, the one I really wanted. Thanks a lot. Now I'll have to go buy another set.

DS was given a really cool gift - a remote control helicopter. And then "they" went on and on about how they bought an extra warrenty on it. Okay, chill. Of course, they couldn't find the batteries they bought for it, so we couldn't try it right away.

Afterwards, I overheard MIL ask DH a really rude question - are the kids going to have any presents to open from santa? (in a tone that said she didn't think they would be getting anything on xmas morning). WTF?? What the hell does that mean? Are you saying we are too cheap to buy them gifts? Really, what kind of question is that??

It was great to get out of there.

We had our xmas in the morning, and that was fine. The kids liked all their gifts. But DH gives me perfume that I'm allergic to, and a yogurt maker when I already have one, a $35 gift card to Roots (which won't buy anything there but socks - he created the myth that I like Roots clothing - I don't - it took me 6 months to find something to buy with the last gift card). But whatever. And $35 to Lululemon, which isn't enough to buy anything but underwear. But again, whatever.

Then we go over to my parent's house. My mom gives the strangest gifts. Like toothpaste. Mouthwash. Coffee filters.

The kids got nice gifts. DH and I got a big bag of "stuff." A music CD neither of us will listen to. Two boxes of tea that I won't drink (flavored "fake" tea), cranberry drink mix (all chemicals & sugar), white hot chocolate mix, normal hot chocolate, bottle of wine, Tim Tam chocolates (because my brother ate them in Australia and now for some reason she thinks they are special), movie tickets, a winter hat for DH. And a few other little things I can't remember. Nothing good, nothing that says she made any effort in finding something we would like. In fact, my two brother got nearly identical bags of "stuff."

And I made an effort to buy useful and fun gifts for those in my family.

DS got another remote control helicopter - from one of my brothers. We played with it right away, it's really neat!

We had to go from there back to the in-laws for supper, so we brought that helicopter (not the one they bought him - no batteries for it). When the saw it, they started in on the extra warrenty thing! We should really buy it!! UGH! None of their business!

As it turns out, the helicopter they bought won't fly! Piece of crap, I guess we will be using that warrenty.

And the in-laws expect us back again for supper on boxing day (Dec. 26 for you Americans). I hear DH on the phone to his mom, suggesting that we start having lasagna along with the leftovers for a change. It didn't sound like it went over well. He mentioned it to me, and my comment was "I don't see why we should have go there at all."

And, yeah, he told his mom that we aren't coming. We had a nice afternoon on the frozen lake - the kids played in the snow, DH pulled them in a sled, DS skied for maybe 10 seconds before giving up, and I went for a couple of long skis out across the lake (dodging ATV's, I really hate those things). We had supper by candlelight, and now they are watching Toy Story 3 while I blog.

Except that DD threw another HUGE fit because the pajamas she wanted to wear are in the laundry. Let her scream in her room and started the movie. Why do people have kids?