The family stress has started.....

[Globalti]

Mrs Gti's mother arrived yesterday and straight away Mrs Gti has got a "bag on".

My mother keeps phoning to ask whether we will be doing the 5 hour drive down south to stay with her but Mrs Gti detests her and doesn't hide it; she finds it hard to speak a civil word to her at all. I plan to go down early on Boxing Day but I doubt my wife and son will come.... nobody told me when I got married that I would be torn agonisingly between the loyalty I swore publicly to my spouse and natural loyalty to my own mother....

Roll on 2 January when I can get away from the family hatred and back to the relatively stress-free business of extracting payments from export customers.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Wives and Mothers .. Nightmares the lot of them .

 

[biggs682]

oh dear .....

 

[summerdays]

Oh dear I'm starting to feel less stressful - I think all but a couple of presents are now bought. And Mr Summerdays family aren't that big into Christmas so that we get no pressure from them at all - apart from us not wanting to go there on Christmas day as it is too low key - cards neatly stacked in a pile, no decorations and a nice simple meal. The main stress is getting my side of the family together - too many young kids running riot in a house!

I do still need to do the food shopping so I guess that could be stressful.

 

[EltonFrog]

My wife and I agreed when we got together that we would not share Christmas day with either family at home. It's worked pretty well so far.

Me, on a personal note, I feckin hate Christmas and all it's contrived bollix. Over excited spoilt kids, full of expectation of what they're going to get, parents stressed out about what they have spent, and what they should spend. I overheard someone shopping yesterday say something like, "well I've got to spend another £10 on my sister, cos I know what she bought be and it cost £95 so I need to even it up." what the bloody blasty eck is the point of that?

I was walking round Andover town centre yesterday, and without a single shadow of a doubt, everyone looked tired and shagged out, and as miserable as a traffic warden who slipped on a dog pooh. Perhaps I'm naive but Christmas is meant to be a time of comfort and joy, and a season of goodwill, not a chore that has to be dealt with.

Rant over, I'm off to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

 

[Arch]

It's what you make of it. I guess the stress is when one part of the family have different ideas about what it ought to be made of.

We're off to my Mum's later today, and tomorrow we'll be joined by my sister and her partner and boys, and on Christmas day we'll be joined by her partner's Mum - it's lucky that my Mum and his Mum live in the same city. There's nothing like the excitement of two small boys at a) Christmas and b) the sheer excitement for them of having Grandma and Gran and Auntie Sue and Uncle Night Train to play with all at once. Luckily, we're all alike when it comes to understanding the preferred approximate value of gifts, and happy to be fairly relaxed. I like cooking the dinner, with help from all, and Mum's happy to let me, on the promise of her washing up instead. It usually works like a well oiled machine, with a small amount of being well oiled ourselves!

We'll be back to have New Years Eve dinner with NT's parents, who don't bother much with Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Apart from the fact me and the girl are thick with colds for the second Christmas in a row there is very little to bring stress to Christmas.

I've said it before, but life is perspective; if you stare into dark corners you'll never see the light pouring in through the windows. Unless your house has subsidence like ours does.

Sorry to hear there is disharmony though, it must feel like there are a lot of dark corners right now!

This is one of the many posts I write but re-read and delete on account of my words reading like uppity tosh, but I'm going to leave this one

 

[TVC]

My sympathy to all those who are torn trying to keep everyone happy at this time of year.

When my parents were around my mother would try to guilt me into spending more time with them, by contrast, Lullabelle's mum and dad are really relaxed and accept us doing what ever we want (I suspect they prefer a quiet time too).

 

[Peteaud]

My wife and I agreed when we got together that we would not share Christmas day with either family at home. It's worked pretty well so far.

Me, on a personal note, I feckin hate Christmas and all it's contrived bollix. Over excited spoilt kids, full of expectation of what they're going to get, parents stressed out about what they have spent, and what they should spend. I overheard someone shopping yesterday say something like, "well I've got to spend another £10 on my sister, cos I know what she bought be and it cost £95 so I need to even it up." what the bloody blasty eck is the point of that?

I was walking round Andover town centre yesterday, and without a single shadow of a doubt, everyone looked tired and shagged out, and as miserable as a traffic warden who slipped on a dog pooh. Perhaps I'm naive but Christmas is meant to be a time of comfort and joy, and a season of goodwill, not a chore that has to be dealt with.

Rant over, I'm off to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

That is 100% fact.


Me and Mrs Aud will ber having some pasta in sauce, on Sidmouth beach on our own on xmas day.

Bah humbug,

 

[snorri]

I've said it before, but life is perspective; if you stare into dark corners you'll never see the light pouring in through the windows. Unless your house has subsidence like ours does.

I'm glad you are able to make jokes about it, and sincerely hope you can get things sorted out in the New Year.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I'm glad you are able to make jokes about it, and sincerely hope you can get things sorted out in the New Year.

We've been fantasising about the changes we'd make if the house had to be rebuilt

 

[Marshmallow_Fluff]

Mrs Gti's mother arrived yesterday and straight away Mrs Gti has got a "bag on".

My mother keeps phoning to ask whether we will be doing the 5 hour drive down south to stay with her but Mrs Gti detests her and doesn't hide it; she finds it hard to speak a civil word to her at all. I plan to go down early on Boxing Day but I doubt my wife and son will come.... nobody told me when I got married that I would be torn agonisingly between the loyalty I swore publically to my spouse and natural loyalty to my own mother....

Roll on 2 January when I can get away from the family hatred and back to the relatively stress-free business of extracting payments from export customers.

+1
January is not far now.. It will be here before we know it!

 

[TVC]

Me and Mrs Aud will ber having some pasta in sauce, on Sidmouth beach on our own on xmas day.

That sounds like a bloody good idea to me.

 

[Arch]

I've said it before, but life is perspective; if you stare into dark corners you'll never see the light pouring in through the windows. Unless your house has subsidence like ours does.

I'm glad you left this post, that made me laugh!

 

[Noodley]

Anyone who feels they need to keep "everyone happy" should "grow a pair" (as the saying goes) - man up, be honest, stop pissing about.

Anyway, Christmas is supposed to be fun, only your own misery gets in the way of this.

I am completely looking forward to the post-3pm Christmas Eve food shopping, and I'm sure my family will be waiting my return to find out what bargains I have pisked up for their Christmas meal - I am hoping that there'll only be Shipham's crab paste and piccallilli left on the shelves