The FiL is gone, after 11 days! Saying it’s a relief is an understatement.

My dog bit the MIL. Extra food for her that night!!

The last lot have now left and I have an empty house. The silence is marvellous.

We had a slightly quieter Christmas day this year, with just BiL, MiL and FiL over for the day.

FiL has Alzheimers, and in all likelihood this was the last Christmas day he’ll be able to remember the kids’ names, its heartbreaking to watch him ask for directions every time he needs the toilet. MiL has a knack for relaying the most mundane knitting-related anecdotes in pitiless detail, resuming from exactly where she left off given any interruption, but she’s lovely and has a tough time looking after her husband as she won’t accept any help.

My youngest has been singing Away in a Manger all the time since his school Christmas show, so BiL and I worked out the chords for it and we had a family sing-song after dinner. As soon as we started, FiL – who’d been dozing on the sofa for a while – came to and sang along with the kids, remembering all the words as he sang. It was beautiful.

Back home last night after a week at the In-Laws beautiful house in the Cotswold’s. They are wonderful people & try to make my life easier looking after my wife.

In a moment of madness I had invited my Step Mother to stay for 4 days!!!!
To say we were all worn out by the end is some understatement, she’s 83 but acts like a 3 year old if she doesn’t get her own way 😮
Still it gave us a good laugh when she’d gone as we kept asking each other things in her tantrum demanding style.

Oh and if she had said “Oh but you see I was an only child” one more time I would probably have been in a cell awaiting trial for strangulation. WTF it was supposed to mean I’m not sure given both my parents were/are only children and were/are well balanced polite people.

It wasnt until we were in the car to the inlaws on xmas eve that MrsFla informed me we were staying until Sunday evening rather than leaving boxing day as planned
MIL can find the grey lining in every silver cloud, FIL is an alcoholic and they are both your typical southern UKIP daily mail reading bigots – it was sooooo much fun.

Manflu also stopped me from getting some respite on the bike

By Saturday evening I was trying to decide if the house could have done with a new patio ……

Had a lovely Christmas day with my Mum but been at my Dad’s and Step mum’s for 3 days now and really relishing our departure tomorrow! Love them and all that but sooo bored, sleepy and getting fatter by the minute. They just don’t do anything…Step mum is a winger and complains about being fat and ill/tired all the time but hasn’t left the house once since we arrived. Thank goodness we have the dog so have an excuse for fresh air once a day and escape the super heated house. Sorry for rant I feel very lucky in my life but argghhhh!

I used to think it was just on TV and ‘other people’ that had shitty in-laws. Then my sister got re-married…. FFS, every family visit painfully ruined.

Jeezo I get it bloody lucky by the look of things. Spent Xmas in Aberdeen with mine and had a great time.

They are so generous and easy to get on with its brilliant.

Been on seperate holidays this year with both my mum and bro and Mrs’ parents and siblings. So we generally get along quite well, with the odd clash.

This afternoon, though, blimey! New Years Day at in laws. My FiL has a “thing” about wine and openly admits that if he doesn’t like a certain wine, he’ll pour it for certain guests whilst keeping the good stuff for himself and those in favour at that particular time.

Today was a case in point, glasses filled before we got to the table. 3 different bottles of the red on the go. FiL slipped up when asked about the wines and started describing one as “the good one”. Turned out that the “not good one” poured for my SiL was a gift from her parents to my FiL! Cue the release of 10+ years of resentment between SiL and FiL and a big door-slamming storm-out! BiL stated put and settled in to a bottle of red to himself!

The next few months are going to be interesting. Can’t see another Villa happening this year!