Share your Christmas Eve disasters

[livelollove]

I'll go first... so tonight I went in our front room which is one of the last rooms we are yet to renovate and could smell gas. Found this very odd as the room isn't used but the gas meter is outside the window so was concerned. Rang the emergency number and Cadent came out. He found a leak under the floorboards, an old pipe just wear and tear which was small and could have been leaking for months - we don't go in that room often it's become our dumping ground whilst we save to start doing it up, it was pure chance I went to put something in there and could smell the gas.

Anyway, the very nice gas man has fixed the pipe after him & DH pulled up the floorboards to find it. In his words 'if it wasn't Christmas Eve I wouldn't have done this' I suspect they normally just condemn or shut off the pipe when it's a normal day (?).

I felt sick with nerves whilst he was here as I was just expecting him to come and tell us there was nothing. We're also hosting 8 people tomorrow so was racking my brains of what to do (!). Anyway it's all sorted now but at 9pm on Christmas Eve with a gas leak was not how I wanted to spend it!

Mine is minor but I'm still irritated. I go to my in laws every year for Christmas lunch at their request. I provide 3 desserts, the Yorkshire puddings and the gravy, I spend a lot of time on the bloody gravy as I hate instant. My mil messaged me an hour ago to ask if I had used red wine in the gravy, I explained that I made the stock by cooking a chicken in a little red wine with other things but that vegetable stock would be used for the gravy tomorrow. I asked why she was asking and she said that DGMIL had phoned her earlier on Christmas Eve to ask if she could make the gravy as she can't have red wine (she can, she's just being fussy). Why does nobody tell me these things when they happen and not once im finally tucked up in bed? My gravy is wonderful, its the reason i am asked to make it every fucking year. Dont like it? Stop asking for it!!!

We totally ran out of sellotape one year, when the girls were stil tiny.

Very minor but my child has only just gone to sleep 😫😫

Just lie about the red wine, or take some instant bistro for her.

@PortiasBiscuit MIL already knows about the wine as she asked me to make it the same this year. She is however going to whip up some instant for DGMIL.

My toddler threw up so we can't now do Christmas as planned. And we don't have Christmas Dinner in as we weren't meant to be here. Thank god I bought more booze today though!

Our mixer broke halfway through making the dessert. So I brought the DC to Tesco. They're 4 and 2, hyped up and had had too much TV while we were cooking. I'm not yet recovered.

Not major but my 2 year old and 8 week old are full of the flu and neither will stop crying or sleep - it's very stressful

Our bathrook lights kept tripping all the lights on the circuit! So we have had to something I dont know what, DH did it whilst I was on phone to electrician l, sending him WhatsApp pictures! But basically no light in there until the electrician starts back on 6th Jan! Ive taped the light cord up high and we rushed to b&q for lights to stick on wall. We have 2 ladies in their 80s with us! Fun!

Well Santa has brought me a UTI for Christmas. Called 111 at 1735, they called back at 0006. DH going to drop a sample and collect antibiotics. Roll me up into the nearest bin 🗑️ 🤦‍♀️ temp sitting at 38.8 next dose of paracetamol is 0115 feeling absolutely awful 😞

My cooker developed a gas leak friday. I can't get anyone to fix it until after Christmas...totally gutted.

Dd woke up vomiting at 10pm, I've just woke up and been sick and feel awful, supposed to be cooking dinner for 12 people tomorrow.

Waited hours for ds9 to fall asleep. Finally after midnight I snuck in to get his stocking.
Filled it and tiptoed back into his bedroom to hang it on his bed.
The noise of me hanging it(a teeny squeak) was enough to wake him.
Made out I was saying night and tucking him in. But he was sitting up and clocked the full stocking. Said night and scarpered!
So now he knows I'm Santa I guess.
Well, he is 9. Bit gutted.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Left a bag of presents at home instead of bringing to relative’s home where we’re staying for Christmas. Too far to go back for them so will have to wait until we return home.

Make her a jug of lumpy Bisto all to herself

I'm currently sat in the local urgent treatment centre waiting room, hoping to be prescribed some steroids for my recently developed wheeze. I was sent here by 111.

Been battling this blasted virus all week and can't stop coughing... must be so annoying for others in the room.

I'm looking forward to being able to breathe properly again. And sleep!

Supposed to be hosting all day tomorrow.

Sending get well soon wishes to all you others with sickness in your household this Christmas.

On the way home from a kids party today with my DD 2, i drove down the high street to show her the xmas lights and she asked to see the church ones. Drove down, she begged to go inside (which she sometimes does). The Christingle family service was about to start so i dpuble checked she wanted to go and told her she would have to sit still.
Yes mummy i promise.
In we went and it was busy so they told us to take seats at the front.
Sat down and the first carol was Once in royal David's city.
Got to this line and she decided to start playing up loudly....

Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as He

I quickly left the church. The second we got outside she had a FULL on meltdown as she wanted to go back in!
I had to carry her kicking and screaming back to the car. It must have looked like i was kidnapping her as she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

We went to see my side of the family (as we do every year) for a meal out and when we opened presents, my DF had given DD the exact present we've got her as her main present from Santa.
It's probably not as big a deal as I'm making out but I feel absolutely gutted about it.
Knowing her, she'll be made up to have two but it will definitely ruin the magic.

To those that are ill and have to host I really feel for you and hope you can scrape through tomorrow x

This thread is making me feel so much better.

I noticed water in the worktop in the kitchen late morning, while I was mid decorating the cake in readiness for hosting lunch a little later on.

Investigated and found there was a fast leak, so had to get emergency plumber, at eye-watering cost. Had to empty all cupboards down one side of kitchen and cease all kitchen activities while he ripped the wall down to find it and fix it. The company charge an unbelievable hourly rate, and terms state any part of an hour, no matter how small, will be charged at the full hourly rate, so I fretted throughout because I only had enough money for 1 hour. Ended up having to stop him the moment he'd done, and he wanted to spend 20mins watching it to see that it was properly fixed and said it wouldn't be guaranteed if he didn't do this. Sent him off and after I'd put everything back, cleaned the floor, noticed he'd broken the bin by dropping something on the lid, I saw that there were drops of water on the pipe again. I'm hoping it's condensation and not a slower leak.

We do secret Santa amongst the dc, and I'd been dreading this because ds1 had drawn ds2 who he doesn't get on well with, and he'd not tried at all with his gift. DS2 was very upset about this, because it was so obvious in comparison to everyone else's gifts that his was a bit rubbish.

Then ds3 had a massive strop and decided Xmas was ruined by ds2 persuading him to build Lego today because he didn't feel excited about building new sets he'll get tomorrow as a result and was in a foul mood all evening.

Finally, ds3 woke with a nightmare, needing much help to get over it, while I was mid stockings.

Fingers crossed it's like a dress rehearsal and we've got all the bad luck out of the way today.

Many, many moons ago my tradition was to wrap presents on Xmas Eve with a gin and tonic (or four) in hand.
That particular year I'd bought my DD (then about 3 or 4) a load of "Crash Test Dummy" toys from a stall on the market. Massive bargain and top of her Santa List that year. The bloody things come in a million parts so I thought I'd take them all out of the boxes and set them up for her so she could play straight away and not have to wait ages for Mummy to put them together.

Picture this.... 1am, stocking done, I've wrapped everything else, I'm a bit sloshy on Gin, get the 5 separate "crash Test Dummy" toys out, I swear they had 50 pieces each and...... ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS WERE IN GERMAN!.
There was I, still putting the effing things together until five minutes before she got up.

Another year I wrapped all the presents for my kids (then 13,4 and 1) and didn't realise I hadn't labeled them till I went to sort out the piles. Had to do a quick undo of then to ascertain.

Learnt not to drink Gin on Christmas Eve.

My DD, now 32, still remembers the Crash Test Dummies

DS2 woke up feverish at about 9. Decided to do temp and oxygen sats. All terrible. 111 wanted to send an ambulance. We declined, drove him to hospital and are now in A&E waiting for xray and blood results.

I’ve had the shittest day of 2022-

1. My aunt took my lab for a walk, it was attacked by a pit bull that the new owner has only had a week. The dog had its jaws locked round my dogs neck for over ten minutes, she then had to have a general anaesthetic to have her wounds cleaned and stitched up.
2. I’m 33+4 weeks pregnant and had a call from the hospital to say the bloods my MW took yesterday have come back showing pre eclampsia so I had to go to hospital right away- a hospital two hours away, leaving my two kids at home with their dad on Christmas morning
3. on the way to hospital, my car broke down.

so yeah… not been a great day 🙃

Not this year, but a previous year.

The cat we once aquired/he chose to live with us in his old age. Had some sort of spurt of energy one Christmas Eve, leapt at the Christmas tree (which he had never taken much notice of the previous two years) managed to get his leg tangled up in the wires of the fairy lights, panicked started screaming and writhing around, pulling the tree down, to then continue screaming and frantically trying to escape whilst entwining himself in more.

I attempted at first to go in with no PPE to free him, but he hissed and tried to scratch/claw at me, so I panicked and got oven gloves from the kitchen, then attempted again to remove him.

I finally freed the screaming writhing beast, for it then to leap at me and practically attach itself to my face with its claws like a scene from alien.

I then begin screaming, fall over the Christmas tree that's now on the floor breaking it, meanwhile the cat is still hissing and attached to my face.

Eventually I remove said cat from my face whilst being impaled by tree branches and a sharp star ornament.

Cat runs off into the kitchen.

I just layed there in disbelief.

Tree broken, ornaments broken, and I looked like I'd been in a fight with a million razor blades, and lost.

I did my best effort to put the tree back up, nurse my wounds.

I spent all Christmas Day avoiding as many photos as I could and feeling sorry for myself.

Mr Cat carried on like nothing had happened. Furry twat.