Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in Joe Grundy's hat. Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Ho ho ho! Will this thread last until Christmas?

I think if Ruth's own mum was there and had said "Go on pet, pop a bit of tinsel on for old time's sake while I go and make another 500 pots of marmalade. I always think the tree looks unfinished without it", then Ruth's reaction would have been at the opposite end of the spectrum, proving (to me) that she has no real love for Jill.

Lucretia - I'm just ignoring the Lizzie/Dr Locke storyline!

Pip's entitled to her choices and she's entitled to make bad choices, all anyone else can do is watch

Isn't this precisely how Helen ended up in the situation that she did? Toby's nothing like Rob but doesn't have many redeeming features. Jill thinks it's inevitable that he'll hurt her. No-one had any real evidence in the early days that Rob was a wrong 'un either but, like Toby, there were several that didn't like him.

all anyone else can do is watch

When Johhny and Hell were having their discussion about Amber the other day my toes curled. Hell was being all intense and serious and Claire-in-the-Community about Johhny's crush. Anybody else would have gently ribbed him, told him there's plenty more fish in the sea, he's too good for her, yadda, yadda.
Jill, Ruth et al can make their feelings known without coming to loggerheads over it. Gently and humorously point out Toby's failings then move swiftly on to some other topic and let Pip digest the information at her own leisure.

But then there'd be no drama. See, this is why I hate most drama: it's about people behaving idiotically.

I do think Jill could ease the tension by spending Christmas with one of her other children

So Jill should leave her own home on Christmas Day to allow a Fairbrother to take her place at the Christmas table?

It would be different if she lived elsewhere and had been invited to Brookfield for the day. In that circumstance she'd probably decline the invitation (causing a different row).

When Johhny and Hell were having their discussion about Amber the other day my toes curled. Hell was being all intense and serious and Claire-in-the-Community about Johhny's crush. Anybody else would have gently ribbed him, told him there's plenty more fish in the sea, he's too good for her, yadda, yadda.

I thought this means we will end up with Johnny deeply embarrassing himself by declaring his feelings for Helen and her pointing out she doesn't feel that way about him him. And it will be utterly cringe -making, so I am trying to ignore it.

Surely not? I really can't see TA going for an incest storyline.

You're right Francis.

Ruth doesn't know how to deal with spoilt brat Pip because she's a spoilt brat herself. What Ruth wants, Ruth usually gets. I've been totally off her since Sam The Cowman.

I want us all to move up North, I don't care about the kids' schooling/friends/feelings etc.
I want to move me mother in here, yours can go somewhere else.
I want your mother back here now - we've got no food and there's mountains of washing to do.
I want to go to New Zealand. I'm off. Bye kids. Can't say when I'll be back.

This year: "I want me family around me and that doesn't include you Jill. Thanks for lookin' after everything while I spent all that time in Prudhoe, and while I jetted off for an unspecified amount of time, but we won't be needin' you on Christmas Day."

All without a single minute's consideration of the impact of any of the above on anyone else in the family. These aren't small things, like tinsel. She's bloody lucky she still has David if you ask me.

selsigfach - my parents have an angel on the top of their tree which they bought before my older sister was born and she's in her mid 50s :)

And surely they have the same old decorations they've had for aeons?

I agree that the whole SL is stupid. And that Daisy Badger is a dreadful actress.

Bit at the idea of Johnny making a play for his aunt!

Sorry to hear that Francis. One of the most difficult things about grieving is remembering that others are grieving too and you don't have the monopoly on it.

Brookfield are taking the whole thing far too seriously. They are treating it as if Pip'n'Tobe are a forever thing instead of just current bf/gf. They are the ones upping the ante. They should chillax.

Excellent rant, vango.

I was interested to see that Roooth did exactly the same as Pip - simply stalked off when she didn't want to deal with Cinder-Jill‘s tree-decorating suggestions. Like mother, like daughter. They're like peas in a pod: both spoilt and egocentric and can't bear it if they don't get their own way.

I do so wish Cinder-Jill would announce that she's spending Christmas with Carol, then we could enjoy the sound picture of Roooth wrestling with a full Xmas dinner prep. If she can't take a tray of mince pies out of the oven without dropping them, I look forward to the utter chaos that would ensue with a 15lb turkey, a full tray of roast veg and buckets of gravy. It'd be custardgate all over again.

I think Ruth went off in order to neither burst into tears or say something to Jill she would regret.
I really can see myself acting a bit like Ruth at present, although I thought Pip was unbelievably rude to just "bring" any boyfriend to her Grandmother's birthday.

OMG without doubt Kirsty upduffed. Refusal of carefully planted 'camembert tartlet' in same sentence as empty glass. They could have strung that one out into different scenes. She sounds a bit sick as ell

Wait for the the 'tummy upset'

Hasn't she gone a few too many missed periods by now?

She will know - doesn't mean she has told anyone

Hasn't she gone a few too many missed periods by now?

if Helen were true to form - she would be exceedingly jealous of another baby on the family as she would see it as taking away from hers

Were those typos deliberate? Because they were epic!!

Why do we, or so many of us, reckon it's Rooth's job to make xmas dinner.? The kitchen at BF is no more her domain than it is David's, and R has shown no evidence of interest or skill in cooking. I can feel my feminist hackles rising a bit. In this house the meal will be done mostly by the menfolk - who of course vastly outnumber me anyway.Though I might share some characteristics with Ruth, I can cook quite well.

Surely not? I really can't see TA going for an incest storyline.

I don't think it'll come to anything, other than embarrassment - but it's not like Johnny's grown up knowing Helen is his aunt - he didn't meet them till he was 15(ish?) and half the time since then, Helen's been busy being Mrs Titchener and not round the farm as much, and then she goes on about liking his beard, which he was only growing to impress another woman (or girl), so ...

Agree it shouldn't be assumed it's Ruth but as she's quite happy to assume it will be Jill i can't get excited about it.

I also think Ruth treats jills contribution to the household with no respect and I always had the impression she thought she was better than Jill because she's a 'proper farmer' rather than a 'farmers wife'