Just a quick, very belated update after the saga of Christmas Day.
So, on Boxing Day DH and I were both up and about around 8ish, packed and ready to go to my Aunt’s quite early. My Aunt asked to us to get to hers by lunchtime (it’s an hour and a half drive), so I suggested we finish getting ready ourselves, then wake DM up so that all we had to do was get her ready. So we woke her up at 9:30.
She sat on her bed in her pyjamas for the best part of 2 hours faffing around with her many, many, many tablets (she does have to take an awful lot of tablets) so I helped her with that and did literally all the rest of her packing for her. Then she had to get dressed, then put her make-up on, etc etc. Just as I was thinking we were about ready to go she asked me to make her a cup of tea. Not directly of course, something like “are you making a cup of tea?”. Eventually, nearly 3 hours after we woke her, (and two hours after DH and I had thought we’d be leaving) we left.
We got to my Aunts and thankfully because her house is so enormous it offered DH and I the chance to have a few peaceful hours alone in a separate room watching a film whilst she and my Uncle chatted with my DM. However, he had to leave for work the next day lucky bastard so on the 27th I had to sort her out myself.
There were a few I-am-ready-to-tear-my-hair-out moments - the part where she called me “gobby” in front of my Aunt, Uncle and cousin for disagreeing with something she said was a highlight. My Aunt caught my eye and just gave me a sort of shruggy “what can you do?” type of look.
She’d told my Aunt she was thinking we’d leave around 8pm but I could tell my Aunt didn’t want her us to leave that late and I barely feel safe with her driving in daylight so we woke her up around half 11-12ish (and again she spent several hours sat on her bed chatting in her pyjamas). I made my DM her sandwich and cup of tea when she went downstairs, and then went to her room and packed all her stuff for her (again) and got it all downstairs and into the car (again). At one point she told me she needed her shoes as she still had her slipper boots on, so I took them into the sitting room, and she just stuck out her legs for me to take her slippers off her feet for her.
We’d been in the car heading back to hers around 20 seconds when she started asking why couldn’t I stay til Saturday or Sunday? I said something vague about DH having made plans for us with his friends (which was a lie) and she got all huffy and said if you don’t want to stay just say so, no need to make something up. Evidence to the contrary!
We got home and I stayed one more night on the world’s most uncomfortable sofa bed (don’t even get me started on that fucking sofa bed). I woke up quite late the next day and started packing my stuff up to leave. She woke up sometime around 1pm and once again I made her “breakfast” and cup of tea etc. I had hoped at the very least that she’d give me a lift to the train station as it’s a 2 mile-ish walk (I can’t afford taxis) but she never offered and I gave up on that foolish notion when she was still sitting on her bed in her pyjamas by the time I left at 10 past 3. I did wonder at some point whether she was hoping that by not getting dressed and offering a lift it would force me to stick around longer, but honestly by then I was so fed up I’d have walked the whole way home!
My one act of rebellion was not to do the last lot of washing up, after I realised that since my getting there on Christmas Eve she literally hadn’t done a single thing for herself. She didn’t cook anything, or make a single drink, or wash any dishes, or pack her own bags, or carry anything to or from the car or even to or from her room. Nothing. She drove from hers to my Aunts and back again, but she’d have done that regardless of whether DH and I had been with her (and at one stage we were trying to figure out how to get him added to her insurance policy so he could drive).
It took me 2 and a half hours to get home, all the while carrying 4 heavy bags (and she tried to persuade me to take more stuff) and my neck and shoulders have been sore ever since. I think the reason I’ve only just updated is because I’ve only just started to feel properly relaxed again!
The upside is DH and I are moving soon so I won’t have to spend Christmas at her flat ever again. The downside is that means she’ll come to us, not just alternate years but every year, from now on. DH and I are TTC though, so fingers crossed next Christmas I can use “baby needs a feed” as a ready made excuse to get a bit of a break from her!
If you’ve made it this far, well done, thanks, and hopefully you won’t have to read a moany Christmas thread from me ever again! 