To want do spend Christmas day with my friends, not my family?

[OldMona]

We all feel that we just ruined our families' Christmases last year.

I asked my granddaughter to 'stand up pet and let Great Uncle Bill have a seat' when we were gathered for pre-lunch drinks. Apparently her self esteem still hasn't recovered and she now thinks she's of little value

Edna was so excited when her nephew brought his new baby around that she stroked her cheek and said 'ooh, what a poppet'. The baby is, apparently, incensed at having her space invaded and will probably never speak to Edna again (when she learns to speak)

And Shirley brought her granddaughter a Barbie doll and her grandson a train set and has, apparently, forced gender stereotypes on the children, tried to outdo Santa with the cost of the presents and cluttered up her DIL's house with plastic rubbish .

To add to all that, I passed around a tin of Quality Street after dinner and apparently deliberately 'imposed my own tradition' on DDIL who had a box of Belgian truffles in the fridge; Edna asked if she could listen to the Queen's speech not realising that she was 'taking over' the family day; and Shirley assumed her Grandson would sleep on the blow up bed so she could have his room, causing the poor lad to feel 'ousted' and 'as if he wasn't welcome in his own home'. She honestly just thought that with her chronic arthritis and bad back.......

So, we don't want to cause any more trouble. Would we BU to buy a nice turkey and pud in M&S and stay in Edna's house this year.

Thanking you,

Mona, Edna and Shirley.

Can I come? I've got a shed load of After Eights.

I think Mona, Edna and Shirl sound like entitled babyboomers; spending their winter fuel allowances on M&S food, sherry and tins of Quality Street.

I'm still waiting for the PM with the address of the party gaff!

Yes, me too. Otherwise I'm going to have to go and play maiden aunt to all my nephews & nieces. Which would be offensive, disgusting, and controlling. Obviously.

Are you not worried that having a good time by yourselves will be tacitly criticising the way your children choose to celebrate the festive season? its all a bit PA, IMO. Its like you have lives of your own, or something.

Chem's right - it's your Grandparently duty to turn up at your kid's houses and grouse/whinge/complain/hog the remote/eat all the nice chocs/get plastered and pass out in the trifle/punch the other Granny and therefore give them a whole shed load of stuff to bitch about on here and keep us all entertained until Game Of Thrones comes back in March ...

You have your orders!

This is wonderful!

xDH & I once lied about going away so kids didn't feel obliged to invite us when they wanted to spend time on their own together. Then we spent Christmas day in bed playing computer games & gorging on cheesy biscuits. ;-)

I know I'm late to the party, but can I please join as well?

In the course of reading this tread, I have just realised that my SIL (a few months younger than me) is, in fact, my DCs' maiden aunty (as long as we only mean 'unmarried' when we say 'maiden') who comes for Christmas every year and indeed brings her elderly dog with her

I am going to have such fun with this fact this year as SIL and I hoover down our usual vast quantities of red wine - SIL is a Good Egg and will play up to the stereotype wonderfully especially to annoy DH, something we bond over frequently

No mention of Advocaat for the party - it's a nice change from sherry (which is only to be quaffed when opening presents).....as for Quality street - there's nuts in that isn't there? And those naff wrappings they use for the chocolates in the tin - it wouldn't have fitted in with DD's Christmas tree decs and festive table layout....shame on you for not colour co-ordinating lol......

You all sound like narcissists.