HELP : Mother-in-Law at Xmas!

Savvy_Sue

Cashless and broke, it really only took a couple of years to train our boys that the first question on arriving at the grandparents house after Christmas was not "When can we have our presents?" And indeed, that any mention of presents was the height of rudeness and likely to lead to a considerable delay in their production.

Now IMO, your SIL has shown similar rudeness. You are under no obligation to produce presents or cards for anyone. If it was one child out of a whole family it might have been OK to enquire whether you'd forgotten or she'd mislaid it, but to TELL you you'd forgotten an adult - honestly!

Next year, tell her you've gone buddhist!

Bossyboots

MIL telephoned to say she has this cold thats going around so we had better not go over.  Her next door neighbour took her in her Christmas dinner on the 25th so at least she had a proper meal that day.  We'll pop over and see her later in the week and although we will no doubt get comments about Christmas (particularly as we saw my family both days) at least she will not be spoiling the main holiday days.

We've now had an invite for New Year's Eve to my brother's.  My sister-in-law will be happy for MIL to tag along so maybe we'll invite her to come with us then.  As she only lives a short distance from my brother we can take her along for a couple of hours then take her back home if she doesn't want to stay all evening.


On the subject of turkey, I always buy a large one at Christmas. I also cook a ham and beef. We usually have seven people for dinner and fifteen for tea so quite a bit gets used up on the day. Anything left over gets sliced up and put in the freezer. We then work our way through it over the holiday in various guises, just adding salad or chips or making a complete hot meal out of it as the mood takes us. It makes it easier for everyone to muck in and produce a meal with the minimal work for me. Because there is a variety we avoid the turkey overload syndrome and it is usually gone by New Year.

elona

Bossyboots
How do you fit everything in the oven? or do you cook in relays.

Caterina

Hi all

It is so interesting to read how everyone is coping with Xmas and its aftermath.

I am glad to say that things keep being ok in this neck of the woods but I am getting a slight dose of cabin fever and raring to go somewhere away from my family for a little while!

The cats have all but destroyed the Christmas tree, the food is almost all eaten but a new org veg box is due anytime now so we will be ok on grains, I am going almost vegan in preparation for my NEW YEAR RESOLUTION (there goes, I have mentioned it now!) and go vegan for real, my husband is listening to whinging whining hippy music all the time while cooking (Led Zeppelin,but at least he is cooking!).

I echo other comments above saying how glad I am that a lot of people in the end did please themselves more than the family/tradition/turkey from hell etc.... In our veggie household we (reluctantly) banned the sprouts from hell. I love them and so does my husband, but the kids loathe them so we did not cook them this year, and the ones lurking in the bottom of the fridge drawers are going to be steamed and mashed in a bubble and squeak when more org. potatoes arrive with the delivery!

I am saddened and horrified about the disaster of the tsunami and so many lives lost but I also thank God for my family and life and the whole thing really puts all the little whinges into perspective.

REally in a way though I can't wait that life gets back to 'normal'....

Now I really gotta go back to the kitchen and to listening to whinging Stairway to bloody Heaven for the 15th time and check that the Yorks. pudding (recipe from Old Style worked a treat) is not burnt!

Ciao

Caterina

jockettuk

5 yrs ago i got divorced and at the time wondered how i would spend christmas again going from a house full to just me and my daughter,, then a few months later i got wonderful new neighbours who in despite of having a huge family we were invited into theres for christmas day for the next 3 yrs... in the meantime i met my wonderful new partner and we started to share christmas day together .. last year at mine this year at his new house, my daughter is nearly 10 (in Jan) and she got almost all her presents that she wanted. The bratz pad she was promised by the ex inlaws never materalised because they said it need assembling arghhh made her dad pay half towards one in the sale for her birthday as they his parents..

I stopped buying for adult realatives once they started having kids as i normaly buy for the kids.. mind you once i had my daughter and they forgot her i stopped buying and giving presents to people who dont appreciate them.

We always do panto around christmas as a family with my boyfriend mind you they say i embaress them shouting at the baddie lol

right im off now and being a jock im going to celebrate the new year and now my daughter older she can come out with us and celebrate it also ..

Happy hogmany to all

margaretclare

Hi Caterina

Remember that Yorkshire Pudding is traditionally served as a separate course before the main dish - you make big ones (about the size of a tea-plate) rather than those tiddly little ones perched on the side of the plate with meat, two veg and potatoes.

We recently went to a vegan fund-raising dinner at a local Indian restaurant in aid of a local animal rescue centre. It was the local AnimalAid group who seem to be all passionate vegans. They even checked out the wine to make sure it was acceptable (apparently in some wineries animal bones are used to clean out the casks). They were lovely people, we had a great time, but I don't think I could go that far. However...

We have been watching the news, absolutely awful, and even with natural disasters people cannot stop killing and causing mayhem in Iraq.

Please can I ask everyone - donate whatever you can afford to the Red Cross appeal. It's easy to do online using your Visa card. Just log on to the Red Cross site. I've already done so - what else can one do, sitting here in comfort and plenty, the sun shining, we're warm and well-dressed. Everything that people have moaned and complained about over Christmas, 'you didn't buy your adult niece a present' etc etc - it all seems so, so meaningless.

Love to all

Aunty Margaret

christmas_donkey

I agree with charity at christmas time. For the first time ever i have donated a set amount of money to my chosen charity. I would have loved to have sent more, but fingers crossed for next year eh?

I hope these poor children appreciate my gesture more than my mother and sister in law did.

http://groups.msn.com/YamahaDiversions/beautifulgate.msnw

tru

Good for you, C&B ;D

Bossyboots

Bossyboots
How do you fit everything in the oven? or do you cook in relays.

I have a double oven so Turkey goes in the bottom and ham in the top. The roast potatoes share the oven with the Turkey and stuffing and roast parsnips share with the ham.

The beef is cooked in my combination microwave.

Caterina

Hi Aunty Margaret,

Yeh I made a MASSIVE Yorkshire pudding, in a big roasting tin, we had the leftover slices today for brunch (well, we did get up at noon today hehehe).

I am cedrtainly going to look into donations for the disaster fund, I usually donate to Concern International, did for Sudan, as they have very low overheads and most of the donation goes to the beneficiaries, but I am not sure what they are doing for the SE Asia disaster.

All this makes me feel even more determined to consume as little as I can and leave the smallest eco-footprint possible, as this Earth of ours is so fragile...

With love

Caterina