Another family visiting Christmas thread sorry.
MIL is all alone. No other family apart from us. Understandably, DH wants to see her at Christmas as we ususally do. Because MIL is alone, I haven't had Christmas with my family since I got together with DH.
I would really like to see my family on Christmas day this year. I miss them and usually get tearful about not seeing them. I'm feeling more emotional about it this year as we have DC who will be 10 months old. It will be DC's first Christmas.
So the compromise is to stay in MIL's holiday cottage with MIL. We'd go up there a couple of days before Christmas then get up on Christmas morning, open presents and then drive to my parents house three hours away for a late lunch and then stay for a few more days.
Trouble is, its making me really sad that much of DC's first Christmas Day will be spent on the M5/packing and unpacking car/rushing etc. Also, DH is notoriously bad at getting up and being on time. I know we won't get away when planned and I will be grumpy about being behind schedule. I'll get snippy with MIL because I want to be on our way.
My parents could in theory also come and stay at the holiday cottage but I know that they will not want to. MIL is nice and a very generous host but can be quite bossy and is super nosey - she has quite upset my Dad in the past. She has a dog that jumps on everyone, the table, eats off the plates, sleeps in the beds etc which my Dad can't stand. Despite my best efforts, she also insists on doing all the food herself (v v generous host as I said) but she tends to cut corners when it comes to food prep hygiene and has a reputation for giving people food poisoning so I suspect they would rather avoid if poss.
We can't have everyone over to us down here as we live in a shoe box. (Our living room has space for two adults to sit down and no more.) And MIL will not leave dog. Besides, we can't have dog here as we have a house rabbit. (I know, I know.)
My parents will not have MIL to stay at theirs because she would want to bring the dog and they can't stand it.
We can't go to DSis's house as she doesn't want the dog there.
We can't go to a neutral location (like a hotel) as MIL will not leave dog or be too far away from all her other animals.
Am I missing something really obvious here? Is there a way we could all be together/see everyone without any rushing around on Christmas day? Or should I just get over trying to make DC's first Christmas fun and peaceful and face the reality that its all about MIL's fuggin dog.