To ask what you're dreading most about Christmas with your inlaws this year? ( lighthearted )

[BossaNovaOnAllNight]

I know its a time of year for giving and being with each other but let's be real, the people we spend christmas with don't magically have a personality transplant just because of the date on the calendar. What are you already anticipating will wind you up this Christmas? I'll go first, DH'S grandmother noticing everyone's weight ( gain, loss anything ) and bringing it up just before dinner when we are all about to eat a ton. DSIL will undoubtedly say something my autism finds unacceptable, like she's lied about something not arriving from Etsy and got a refund from a small business . Oh and I truly do not want to go on a huge family walk in the freezing cold really, I run daily and want a day off. As I say, this is light hearted and I will have a lovely time and I can't wait to see my in-laws but its a full on few days haha. Aibu to ask what you're dreading?

The POTTERING.

Sloshing through my good wine at 3pm whilst complaining that we drink too much.

The murmuring in hushed tones that ‘children these days really get SO MUCH’ 😂

Festive joy though, making memories and all that eh 😂

We don’t see the in-laws at Christmas and my family are a hoot. Can’t wait 🎄🤩

I need those in-laws! A cup of tea and a biscuit? Yes please. 😋

The shouting. Not one of them has a hearing aid that does anything.Then they sulk as they can’t keep up with the conversation at normal volume.

I just leave them to do a massive jigsaw in silence and get pissed in the kitchen 😂

Also the constant phone calls from SIL conducted at a volume the street can hear.

You should be thankful - my SIL's son and partner have had their deceased chihuahua taxidermized and she goes EVERYWHERE with them, from room to room! They now have 2 other live chihuahuas too, but, nope, the dead one still is everywhere! Even on the bedside table at night.

I adore my mil (I'm nc with my own family-the worst Christmas was when they attacked me with a carving knife) and I cannot wait to see her-i cannot worship this lady more

Her house is boiling hot at all times (I'm so glad I dont pay her heating bill) and I have to keep stepping outside to cool down a bit

She likes us to open our presents over the day so we will start opening them at 8:30am and the last somewhere around 10pm

I just make a start on the baileys as soon as I can-glass in one hand and a present shoved into the other

I'm cooking dinner this year as shes been very ill and had to have an operation

Bet she'll hover around me while I'm doing it as shes a 'doer' not a 'sit and chill' (I'm a 'sit and chill-it'll get done at some point')

If all else fails,i'll just get dp to sit on her (lighthearted-we both adore her)

Forgetting to take the stuff for dinner with us and letting them (sil/bil) down.

Oh, go on go on go on.

Nothing really. My inlaws can be a little annoying but our toddler adores them. And they're harmless, just a little selfish and expect us to work around them.

I suppose maybe vacuuming under the tree so often? We have a robot vacuum but it can't get all of the needles up.

My MIL no longer being there. Not light hearted, sorry. First Christmas without her since I met her 15 years ago. I loved her very much.

It’s not my in laws it’s my own family!?

Just how many digs will my sister make? How many times will she give me dirty looks or roll her eyes?

How obnoxious will her child be on a scale of 1-10

can’t wait to find out 😒

Oh my god!!! I’m so glad they didn’t do this 😂

Cooking Christmas dinner in someone else’s kitchen, not knowing where anything is like flour or seasoning for the gravy. And having to learn in three hours how to cook on an Aga!
It being just the three of us, all introverts, so no real conversational flow.
Having to watch the king’s speech.
Having Christmas dinner at lunchtime rather than teatime, which I prefer as I think the day has a nicer structure then. As it is, if I want to get out for a half-decent walk I’ll have to be up before dawn so as to be able to do the cooking in time for 1pm.

Actually the control freak in me is quite unhappy at all this, it’s not like relinquishing all control over the food, which is fine- it’s the thought of being both in control but also not in control of the food that’s not fine. I’ll probably have to get on the fizz at breakfast time in order to cope 😂

Jesus!

SIL eating with her mouth open and talking at the same time.

She is constantly noisy. She talks incessantly and when she eats, she is making Mmmmmm....noises all the time. She makes this noise when others are speaking too. She is vocalising constantly. It must be exhausting.

She has a heart of gold but she is annoying as hell.

My mil is 'too' hospitable if thats a thing.

I have spare toothbrushes if any of you have forgotten yours. Do you need a toothbrush? Are you sure? If you ever need a toothbrush there's plenty in the cupboard. Here take a toothbrush.

Repeat with everything. 🤣

Try and help with dishes/cooking/ clearing table. No no dont you bother with that now. Sit down, sit down. We will all do it later. Then she slinks away and does it in secret.

Do you need a wash put on????

Poor woman is knackered by the end of christmas.

😂😂these are hilarious-is there something about chihuahuas that brings out the crazy?

The performative huffing and puffing. My MIL can huff and puff like the bloody wolf in the three little pigs.

Light-hearted - good.
My husband and myself don't see any in-laws over Christmas (we are also child free). It's great.
What's probably the worst, remembering from childhood, is the forced fun and the drunk uncle shouting about politics and wanting to fight with my father.
Life is too short for this human shit, I say! 😃

Our first Christmas with our new baby. My parents live further away so they are staying the night before and having Christmas lunch with us. Partners family live round the corner and we will go to theirs late aff/early evening for a few games and leftovers. My partner has said they’ll “probably” want to pop round in the morning to see the baby and give him presents. I asked him to lock down a time with them. He’s so casual and says they’ll come “whenever.” They know we are eating around 1.30pm. But I hate the fact they plan to just rock up any time before then. I like to know an exact time so can plan ohr morning around it. I dont want them to barrel in as we are having breakfast. Or as we are sharing gifts with my parents. I’d rather have a set time so we can organise things around it. I know that makes me sound a bit like a control freak but they have a history of just turning up announced when it’s not convenient, and I feel Christmas morning will be the same!

I am actually laughing out loud. I have an elderly chihuahua who really does little more than a beautiful teddy bear, so I floated this as an idea for when she passes. Not the moving her from room to room part. My husband is usually very indulgent, I was at least 50% serious and I just got a resounding ‘no, are you insane?’ as a response .

It has made me giggle that someone has actually done this.

@Christmaslogistics and @watermybegonias those stories have me howling with laughter! That is NUTS!

@Dogman and @timetogetlost I am so sorry. Christmas really throws those gaps in your life into huge relief. xx

My story is about a friend. Her PILs come over every Christmas Day for the last 23 years and FIL ALWAYS rearranges the furniture in the sitting room! It sends her crazy, she has told him to stop, he keeps doing it! And he is FAST! He will literally wait until everyone is out of the sitting room, and no matter how quick they are (toilet break, checking on dinner, whatever) by the time everyone gets back, he has rearranged the furniture. Always does it on his own, makes no mention of it beforehand, doesn't acknowledge it afterwards. She has tried every strategy in the book to stop him from doing it, to no avail. It has become such a tradition that we all find ourselves checking her FB on Christmas Day to see how long she held him off for, while she updates us from her mobile phone, from the bathroom, biting down on a towel while she screams with rage!

PIL have both passed away but because of the distance they lived we generally used to have to go to theirs.
Until, the last time we went and agreed we wouldn’t again. MIL had a tantrum on Christmas morning that she didn’t like Christmas dinner and didn’t want it. We offered to make it, but no. She served up the worst Christmas dinner in history at 8pm. We had such bad indigestion after, but at least we agreed not to to go again.
When we didn’t go the next year, they had a Christmas dinner for just the two of them.

Generally they then came to us. One year we wrapped all the presents in a single paper for each person. So a red for MIL, blue for FIL etc. They picked up every present and said ‘ I don’t know who this is for, it doesn’t say’ DH then put them in front of each of them and they still complained ‘who is this for?’. It took so long to open everything and not fun.

At this point I'd be implementing a booby trap lol