I'm tired of cooking/preparing 3 meals a day. It's just the two of us but boy oh boy can that woman eat!! She stays slimish, I get fattish. It's bad enough I do everything here much less start making her one thing and me the other. At times I feel guilty when I buy her fast food cuz of the nutritional value....not to mention I eat it too.
I can see where its so frustrating for you. Really, its very unreasonable that u get one day off and MIL feels it should be with her. Really, it wasn't fair to the kids. One thing my Dad was big on, Christmas was spent in our home. Visitors were welcome. He would come over Christmas morning to watch the kids open their presents.
Your celebrations sound perfect to me! That’s what we started doing in the last few years.
Why should we put ourselves through additional stress during the holiday season? We just have our immediate family for holiday gatherings now too.
You are so correct about doing things to keep the peace. It never works out well.
I think most people have made decisions that they regret in order to please others. Hindsight is 20/20.
Imagine my surprise when I overheard my mother telling someone how she nipped the family holiday guilt trips in the bud by spending her first few married Christmases at the beach. But when I dared to suggest that travelling 4+ hours in snow with only 1 day off was too much... KABOOM! In hindsight I’m embarrassed and sad about what I did to keep the peace with her.
After I remarried Christmas was soon ruined by in-law temper tantrums. We refused future participation to preserve the day for our kids. I cook and bake and decorate, but it’s a cozy, slow “just us” day. I guess it would be best described as a secular family appreciation day.
I think people can avoid some of the stress that goes along with the holidays.
When my husband and I were first married we set ground rules. Both of our mothers were excellent cooks and hosted wonderful holiday dinners.
We suggested that we would rotate going to each house. If we did Thanksgiving at one house we spent Christmas at the other house. Neither of our parents objected to this idea.
We did Christmas Eve at the house that we didn’t spend Christmas at. It was great that neither of our parents complained about it.
I don’t understand why some people eat a whole meal at two different homes on the same day! Who can eat that much food?
Plus, if we made other plans all together like going out of town or elsewhere our parents were not offended.
When our parents got older and no longer wanted to host dinners we did it at our house but no one complained if we took a year off because we wanted to travel somewhere.
I always told my daughters not to feel pressured to always attend our dinners. They were allowed to bring their boyfriends and we never complained when they went to the boyfriend’s parents house for a celebration.
If people feel like it is an obligation to do everything with everyone it becomes a pain in the a** for them. I felt lucky that our family didn’t do this and we never had that problem.
I would guess that a lot of people feel like you do regarding the holidays.
For some, it’s just another day or a day filled with stress. Holidays no longer hold any special meaning for them.
Also, all of the commercialization of holidays can be annoying. Some people end up spending a fortune for each holiday. Many are relieved when they are over.
I stopped hosting huge dinners and parties several years back. At one time I enjoyed it very much but it became overwhelming.
I have had years where some guests brought uninvited guests along with them.
If someone was having company at their home and they asked me ahead of time if they could bring extra guests I didn’t mind because I could prepare for them. If unexpected guests arrived at the last minute I didn’t appreciate it.
It’s weird because we as the sleepwalkers have no idea that we are walking around in our sleep. Nor do we have any memory of the incident.
I can tell you that I accidentally woke myself up one night as a kid by touching the blade of a window fan in my kitchen. This was before my parents installed air conditioning in our home.
I was quite confused, not knowing how I got to the kitchen in the early morning hours.
My husband said that when I was sleepwalking early in our marriage, he would talk to me and I didn’t hear him because I was sound asleep. It is a strange thing.
I am not sure how common it is for kids to continue to sleepwalk as adults.
Need, my son was an occasional sleepwalker from maybe age 6-9 within an hour or two of going to bed. So we’d still be awake to guide him back to bed. I was surprised to learn it was common with kids.
Yes! It’s always some sort of frustrating situation. It’s weird how those types of dreams keep recurring.
I have always been a sleepwalker too! LOL 😆 My parents placed extra locks on the doors so I wouldn’t walk out of the house in the middle of the night.
My husband was terrified when he first saw me sleepwalking. We lived in a townhouse when we first married. He was always afraid that I would tumble down the stairs!
I have recurring dreams . The most annoying one is where I am trying to use the phone and I keep dialing the wrong number or I cant get a dial tone
Sounhappy has stated numerous times that she doesn’t disclose the details of her situation because it involves a court case that is ongoing.
She is hoping that it will be resolved soon.
I am not one of these woo woo people who believe that every dream has a special meaning. Some psychologists believe that lucid dreaming is helpful. Who knows?
I think that sometimes our minds go haywire when we are sleeping!
My husband says that he never remembers any of his dreams. I have vivid dreams that are in technicolor! LOL 😆
I still have recurring dreams that I had as a child occasionally. It’s weird.
Sleep paralysis is fascinating. I have only experienced that once in my life. It’s a strange feeling.
Do any of you have recurring dreams? I have one where I’m being chased through a wooded area and they catch up to me. When I go to scream loudly my voice is silent. This one I have had since childhood.
Another one that I have is, I am traveling in another city and I get lost and can’t ever find my way back home. Sometimes I find myself at an amusement park and I get lost from the people that I am with. I’m wondering around in the crowd looking to reunite with my friends.
Why I dream about amusement parks is beyond me because I haven’t been to an amusement park since we took our kids to DisneyWorld and DisneyLand.
Do you get any sort of feeling for the way the pendulum is swinging, or are you still utterly in the dark.
Meanwhile, enjoy the holidays if you can.
We’re still pulling for you and if you find justice we will jump for joy with you!
Sending a bazillion hugs your way today!
The funniest thing that I have ever seen a chihuahua do was bark at a policeman riding a horse at a Mardi Gras parade!
Oh my gosh, everyone was cracking up and saying, “Look at that tiny dog barking at a horse!” Yippy Yappy little thing, he was adorable. They have spunk!
If a dog would show up in our yard and she would arch her back and hiss very loudly. Occasionally, she would go after them too!
She definitely wasn’t a scaredy cat! Oh man, I still miss my cat. I got her when she was 6 weeks old. She was the most lively kitten of the litter and I knew that she was the one for me.
I had just broken off a long time relationship and my kitten and I moved into a tiny apartment.
When I met my now husband, he wasn’t sure if he wanted a cat and said to me, “Honey, I don’t like cats. I grew up with dogs. Would you think about dropping your cat off at your mom’s house and then you can visit her?”
My answer to him was, “You have never owned a cat, so how do you know that you don’t like them? I love you but my cat and I are a package deal! Plus, she’s my cat, my responsibility, and she’s certainly not not my parents responsibility!”
He said, “Okay, that’s reasonable.” When we married the cat won him over. He grew to love her as much as I did. She lived to be 16 years old.
My cat loved all of my friends but she wasn’t crazy about my nieces and nephews, godchildren or younger cousins. She wasn’t used to kids being around all the time. So, I was a bit nervous to bring our first daughter home.
My husband’s insane grandmother kept telling me that my cat was going to jump in my daughter’s crib and smother her to death! I guess that’s an old wives tale or something. I never listened to a word that came out of that woman’s mouth. I wasn’t about to get rid of my cat.
Anyway, I think my cat figured out somehow that my daughter was here to stay and she loved our daughter. She still ran away from the other kids.
Cats are so proud of their accomplishments on catching prey, aren’t they?
My cat would catch birds, lizards, whatever…play with them and then bring them back to the porch to show us what she caught!
If you have dogs in an area with coyotes and foxes, inform yourself about tapeworms. Echinococcus multilocularis is now endemic in Ontario and Alberta Canada. (about 10 years)
Oh, I am sorry. Those do sound gross.
Oh gosh, I have never dealt with worms. Is that a common issue? Is it serious?
I am glad that you have a vet visit scheduled soon.