Biggest CF to feature in your Christmas...

[Chocolateismynemesis]

It was FIL for us - he text DH yesterday evening and asked what we had bought the DC from him. A second message followed to say that he would transfer money for whatever we had bought later in the week when he got a chance.

DH responded that we hadn’t bought anything from him because a) He hadn’t asked us to
b) He hadn’t given us any money to do so

FIL is now in a huff with us and is offended that the DC will apparently think he doesn’t care.

(Full disclosure - he has never bought a gift for any of our DC or for either DH or myself. He usually transfers money a day or two before Christmas and we give the cash to the DC but as he didn’t mention anything and no money appeared, we didn’t say or do anything.)

Who was the biggest CF to feature in your Christmas festivities?

Sister In law. On so many levels.

No one! But then we haven't had or been guests. It's the first one we've just spent at home with our dc and no one else around and it's been brilliant tbh.

icannotremember - we spend every Christmas like that (different countries to both our respective families) - FIL is 700miles away and yet still manages to make everything about himself!

Some people make you long for the days before modern communication... When it's FIL's birthday I hope you send nothing and then call him a day or two later and ask what he got himself from you!

My family who came round whilst I cooked a dinner for 10+ people and then moved on to a different house (all the same people) for drinks at 9pm whilst I stayed with a mucky house and two young kids who'd gone to bed.

I just looked at all the mess and empty bottles and knew they were just going to sit together away from me after I'd spent 3 days cooking for them all and thought "Why?"

Pass the gin

@politicalbiscuit
Did none of them offer to clean??

Yes they had all rallied round after dessert, hand washed and filled dishwasher, but you know how it is with a full house after another couple of hours and dining table needed wiping, and drinks left as they went etc.

Not a horrible state.

@PoliticalBiscuit they don't so bad that cheeky actually!

An acquaintance invited her friends round for a mulled wine party - when we got there she had a table set up with loads of wrapping paper and presents and got us to wrap all her Xmas presents!! She did provide the mulled wine and some snacks but still think she’s a cheeky fucker

Mil we invited her for Christmas then she decided to go to her DD’s and invited herself to us for NY. Then later expected us to go down to her daughters on Boxing Day to pick her up and fit her into our car (which wouldn’t work with the DC’s, myself and DH to to bring her to ours for goodness knows how long.

Bil asked dh to buy him something that cost £160. He spent about £5 on each of us and that’s the most he’s ever spent.

@PoliticalBiscuit that would make me really upset. I wouldn’t bother hosting again!

BIL - arsehole of a git who turns up as and when he feels like it and expects to be well beloved as an uncle. My dcs are not even sure who he is. Que another argument between me and DH.

MIL - got DH a lovely day out gift doing a sport they both love. He asks her to join him and she says no. No reason just no.

Oh Gordon that is bad! I know people who have had painting parties when moving into a new house and have asked friends to come and help out with “payment” in pizza and beer, but it’s always very clear beforehand what you’re turning up to! I’m not actually sure what I would do if I turned up to your friend’s house and was met with that! (Actually on reflection, I’d probably be relieved - I’m an introvert who loves gift wrapping so I’d be quite content to settle in for an evening of gift wrapping while ignoring other people while still gaining social brownie points for going to a Christmas gathering!!!)

PunkAss FIL has pulled similar on us in the past - has called us weeks/months before his birthday or Christmas to tell us what he wants. This has included vip tickets to concerts and limited edition, very expensive, whiskey. For years BILs were happy to do his bidding so it was very hard to say no - now though we just refuse and say that we aren’t doing any adult gifts for Christmas or birthdays and none of us need anything. (We have done this in my family for years and MIL/BILs/SILs are more than happy with it.) Despite this being the norm now for at least 5 years, and the fact that he has never bought anything for us or our DC, he still asks every year and when DH says no, he responds with something along the lines of “oh I forgot you didn’t do gifts - well I suppose I’ll have to buy them for myself then”

@ComeOnGordon

that's outrageous

My sister arrived at 12pm xmas day, left at 8pm boxing day and didn't move off my sofa to lift a finger to help, and spead herself across my sofa (its a BIG sofa but shes a BIG girl) like you would sit on your own sofa at home and it meant several of us had to sit on the floor because despite telling her to make some room she just laughed it off and put her feet up. She didn't even bring so much as a bottlw of wine with her either, but she downed plenty of our champagne yesterday so today we were a bit more stingy with drinks offers.

Sil rung yesterday to ask what time to be here today as its a 3 hour journey, was told the time and then only left her home 30 minutes before this time.

I went with another friend and we just ignored the presents for the first hour and stuffed our faces with the food she’d put out and since my friend didn’t need to drive she was enjoying the wine!!

That just makes me think what an awesome thing a present-wrapping party could be (properly communicated in advance, of course) — everybody brings some paper and tags and ribbons and stuff for everyone to use, you sit round wrapping and drinking and snacking, maybe some music, lots of chat, and you don't end up with that thing where all your presents are wrapped in the same paper because you're too cheap to buy more than one roll every five years. And that one person who can curl ribbon without it just looking like telephone cord can do all the ribbon-curling.

MIL. She sent me a WhatsApp last week telling me that she wanted perfume. (I hadn't asked, and had already bought her a present, but she's my MIL and so I bought it for her.)

Got there today to be given a mini pot of moisturizer for my present. DH got a calendar and an annual. We were also given a bag of sweets. (We are both in our 40's).

My DB. He didn't buy a single gift for anyone except my stepmum, and that was only because I was organising it and insisted he transferred me the cash in advance if me buying it.
We all spent hours organising and buying lovely gifts for each other and he is always disorganised and shameless in it too. He feigns "poor me, I'm skint" but always manages to buy whatever he likes for himself.
This is a regular thing for him but none of us have the heart to do the same back to him.

No one. Lovely Christmas all round. (Oh god, does that mean it was me??)

We locked the doors and hid from everyone - works like a charm. The dog's been a bit of a tosser with his crackling habit and armchair stealing though.

Our Labrador who was caught with paws up on kitchen table chomping his way through a bowl of cherry tomatoes.

DSis. So many ways. In her mid-twenties, acts like a spoiled tween.