Feel like crying - this is the final straw - please come and tell me I'm being silly

[cottonwoolbrain]

And its an utterly ridiculous thing to get upset about. The butcher has sent us a HUGE leg of pork instead of the rolled joint of gammon we ordered because they've run out of gammon. I now have a 14 pound leg of pork lurking ominously in the fridge along with the turkey (far smaller than expected). Butchers have given me a big discount and left a very apologetic note (they delivered it earlier).

This is on top of DSD being stuck in Scotland, all the general problems everyone has this year of not being able to see their family

DSS's announced at 8pm last night that he has to work Christmas day 8am - 5pm (he'd been told he wasn't but someone else dropped out and they told him he had to). That means cooking dinner rather than lunch when all I want to do on Christmas afternoon is collapse.

BOTH showers chose Sunday to break and now I have a strange man standing in my bathroom muttering about things that sound expensive - they're going to need replacing and possibly retiling around them. One of them thankfully sort of works if you don't mind going from hell fire to ice in the space of a few seconds

Worse electrician turned up without warning to instead of tomorrow as he'd had a cancellation and found me in my pyjamas looking worse than something cat dragged in - he'd texted ahead but my phone was off so he was met by a very confused slightly smelly woman with her tits hanging south and with no idea who he was or why he was there.

I also had a seizure in the night (mild thankfully but enough to make me in a lot of pain, dizzy and utterly exhausted with a cracking headache so I probably come across to poor electrician as utterly dolally.

DD (15) is not feeling very well - not covid symptoms and DS (8) is running about like a mad thing wanting to know when I will wrap the presents and trying to climb the Christmas tree

I feel completely out of control, desperate to see my mum and now I'm distraught over a leg of f*cking pork :(

DP has gone to work away from this madness

(Oh and I've lost my favourite socks!)

Aw cottonwoolbrain.. sounds like it's just the straw that broke the camel's back. Sit yourself down with a cup of tea and a mince pie.

Get dressed get your coat on get the kids and go get some fresh air...take your coffee with you and go chill for an hour..a change of scene is often all you need bless you.You are not unreasonabe at all to be loosing your shit think most of us are one way or another!! Too many expectations,too many things uncertain and going wrong for all of us...this year is fking hard work! I am just rolling with it all now and if it happens it happens if it doesnt theres sod all I can do! Its not your fault any more than it is mine once you accept that you will be ok! Best wishes sent xx

OH and forgot to say..your lost socks..offer the kids a tenner to whom ever finds them! Gaurenteed they will turn up!!!!!

@lazylump72 do you mean because one of them will have them or do you mean to send them on a search? If it’s the latter then maybe don’t right now - or risk them finding their Christmas presents instead of the socks!

Send them off searching kids find allsorts ..they are fabulous detectives! Ahh but chuck in hidden prezzies in the mix and you have a point !!

Now having a panic about my gammon being delivered tomorrow.😬

If that gammon doesn't turn up I'm calling the whole fucking thing off and going to bed til January. This year is dog shit.

I'm kind of laughing but I'm not.

Can you cut the pork in two and freeze half?

Can you pay the plumber in pork?

@BaronessBomburst

Can you pay the plumber in pork?

Get yourself a sherry and definitely ask the plumber if he'll take pork leg!

I just got upset in tesco as they had no gammon. None at all. And the only correct size chicken goes out of date on the day I want to cook it. I know, there's bigger problems and it's really not a big deal but I get you OP. At that moment I felt like crying. It's my time of the month so I'm crying at everything!

You tossed in the “had a seizure” bit like it means nothing but the seizure could have made everything feel impossible without all the rest going on!

Take a few deep breaths, can you throw on something warm & take the 8 ur old out to run off some energy? (Even better if the 15 ur old is well enough to take him & leave you in peace) Or do you have a garden? Send him to “decorate for the birds” or similar

It’s great that you have someone fixing the shower - that’s good news.
I’m sorry about all the changes to plans, it’s very unsettling

It will all work out

I've cried over far less.
Last year I cried in McDonalds when it turned out that Irish McDonalds don't do hot chocolate, and I'd been frozen for days staying in MiL's fridge house and just needed a lovely hot drink (easier said than done with lactose tolerance issues and hating tea/ coffee). I was just too cold and hormonal to take the disappointment

@BaronessBomburst

Can you pay the plumber in pork?

genius!

@BaronessBomburst

Can you pay the plumber in pork?

Sadly not @BaronessBomburst I think he's probably Muslim so I think he may be quite offended.

@massistar Your post reminded me that I've not eaten today (though I had a cup of tea just after 7). Now had 2 fried egg on toast and a cup of coffee and feel a bit more human... too much food really but I'm always starving after seizures :(

@lazylump72 I would love to go for a walk but dare not try while I'm still so dizzy - the other thing is that I sometimes get absences following seizures which I don't really fancy while trying to cross a road with over active DS so walks out for now.

Right time to get on with day. Once I've bribed DS with the x-box controller (yes yes crap mum) I'll

1. Spend 20 minutes tidying kitchen to make it vaguely usuable.
2. sort out yesterdays washing and put machine on with todays
3. Make bean chilli and salad for tonight
4. Make blueberry muffins for children (apparently I promised!)
5. Unload washing and hang it up
6. Cry for a bit
7. Eat muffins and drink coffee
8. Sort out stocking stuff

9 Put up some pictures I've been meaning to put up for months 10 Watch a christmasy film with the DCs and let them eat popcorn

If I can do 10 things today, I'll be doing really well. The pork is in the fridge I can investigate it tomorrow. I can do this (can I do this?)

Would DSS mind if you had lunch without him, and plated him up a massive portion to be warmed up for the minute he walks in the door? Maybe have cheeseboard and pudding altogether?

Have a good cry, will make you feel better.
Cut and freeze the pork.
Go back to bed if the kids are old enough to be left for an hour or two.
Happy Christmas

I'm amazed at a shortage of gammon, I thought we were about 52% gammon in the UK . There is always a ton of it in supermarkets usually, tons being sold off on Christmas Eve. Have a look in M&S on Christmas Eve afternoon and stick the pork in the freezer.

Could you put the pork in a brine bath for a couple of days?

Or you could just roast the pork and have it for cold cuts as presumably you would with the gammon.

Can you cut out the bone and make your own rolled joint or do that then cut it in half to make two then freeze one?

Attagirl! Yes you can do this. But also you don't need to do it all. Cut yourself some slack. DS will be absolutely fine on the Xbox. And yes remember to eat!

Slow cooked pulled pork sandwiches wit slaw are the bomb!
How about them with chips on Xmas eve? It freezes too x

Give 8 year old control of the Electronic Babysitter.

Have two paracetamol for your headache.

Take a plastic jug upstairs and wash your hair in the sink. Bung on a pair of leggings/joggers and a clean T shirt. Come back down and drink coffee.

Christmas Dinner - get as much prep done as physically possible beforehand so that all you have to do is shove the Turkey in the oven and reheat things when DH gets home.

The Triceratops leg - well, either get the nice man with tools to take a saw to it or look into slow cooking the thing on boxing day (big tray, bit of moisture, seal the tray with foil, low heat, forget about it). Or decide fuck it and stick it in the freezer for New Year/Valentine's/Easter/Next Christmas.

I feel ya op! I really think a lot of petty stuff is going to push people over the edge right now. It's not really the pork leg it's everything else! I'm a vegetarian so have no pork based advice.

But I think with everything else you need to just do what you can do. Drop the perfectionism and accept Christmas for what it is this year. Which is a very different version of normal. I also need this advice for myself!

My final straw is my real tree although just a week old is balding! Needles all over. So I've gone out and bought a new one. It's gonna be a fucking faff to change over but it would piss me off all Christmas if I didn't sort it!