Holiday Disasters

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I'll have to tell you after Thanksgiving. lol

One of my BIL's is acting like a petulant child about some stuff relating to MIL's estate and SIL (his sister) has told him to stuff it more than once, so we may have some fireworks at dinner.

Buy a good wine if that's your thing, sit back and enjoy the show! Oh, and if you're hosting, use paper and plastic, no sense in breaking the good stuff if they start WWE!

 

[jrmasm]

Yes, they did, it's Thanksgiving, I bet you that the time for dinner was decided ahead of time, and even if they weren't big mid-day eaters, graciousness dictates that you at least thank the hostess for the food, sounded like that didn't happen.

Yes. They were very rude.

 

[tnkr_bell]

It was the night before Thanksgiving and my In-laws had come into town. We were supposed to have them, my BIL, and my SIL parents over for Thanksgiving the next day. That night we went out to dinner and my son was complaining about his stomach hurting and he didn't really eat any of his dinner, he was 8 at the time. He said he didn't feel sick, it just hurt. When we got home he kind of walked inside hunched over, like he couldn't stand up straight. DH had him lie down on the couch to check him out, and as soon as dh pushed on his right side and ds about jumped off the couch we knew there was a problem.

So we took him to the ER and sure enough it was appendicitis. He had his appendix taken out at 2:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning, and we were home by about 1:00 that day. I went ahead and threw the turkey in the oven and fixed some stove top stuffing and mashed potatoes, so we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner. Just not with quite like we had planned.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Oh, wow~ That's really awful. How can people be so rude to the people they are supposed to love? I'll never understand it. I would have done just what you did.

From their perspective, I don't think you are supposed to "love" your in-laws but still.....family none the less.

I consider that a disaster! My sympathies. It really sucks when you work so hard on something and it goes completely unappreciated by others.

Exactly!

You sure handled it better than I would have. That turkey would have been shoved up someone's butt and the carving knife in somebody else's skull!!

I am going to be the dissenter here, you are annoyed they weren't hungry and they didn't tell you how yummy everything is. If someone expected me to eat that big of a meal for lunch I woudn't be able to and i wouldn't be very hungry at lunch time either, and maybe they didn't think the food was yummy . I am sorry but I don't see this as a disaster it was your expectations of what other people should think of your cooking and when they didn't think it was as good as you did it sent you over the edge. Sorry your inlaws did nothing wrong.

No, I wasn't annoyed they weren't hungry or that they didn't tell me how yummy it was. My feelings were hurt because I slaved in the kitchen for hours and didn't get even a thank you.....on Thanksgiving. Yes it would have been nice to have the food complimented, but it was more about not getting any sort of acknowledgement.

In our family, that's not how we treat each other. So in my opinion, it was wrong.

Yes, they did, it's Thanksgiving, I bet you that the time for dinner was decided ahead of time, and even if they weren't big mid-day eaters, graciousness dictates that you at least thank the hostess for the food, sounded like that didn't happen.

Thank you!

Agree with you. It's not like this was just some lunch on any day. This was Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving apparently comes with too many expectations.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Originally Posted by marmalade
One year my cousin showed up uninvited with his disastrous dog, his wife cooked the turkey so long it was completely dry. My great aunts cat (don't even ask how that showed up at my house) chewed the wire to the Christmas tree and it started on fire burning it to a crisp. I got a new tree from outside but little did I know that there was a killer squirrel living inside of it.

Not to mention my work decided to not give me the Christmas bonus I was planning on using to put in an in-ground pool, instead I got a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club. There were cops involved and the swat team.

What a year!!

Wow. The same thing happened to me. Except the cat didn't catch my tree on fire. It just resulted in a burned up chair. The idiot father in law with the cigar burned down the tree because my idiot cousin's dog, unknown to us drank all the water out of the tree stand and dried up the tree.
The idiot father in law would later blow up the storm drain my idiot cousin illegally dumped his RV toilet in. Don't ask me what was in that RV waste. Whatever it was glowed.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I've got a couple of funny now but not funny at the time holiday stories.

The first was the all day cooking of the turkey and then just as my inlaws showed up and I was taking it out of the oven I dropped it on the floor. I ended up making stir fry instead for Christmas dinner. Ooops.

I've also dropped a cherry pie on the floor in the kitchen and had it splatter all over the white cabinets and on my mother inlaws cream color pants. Even the dry cleaner couldn't get those pants totally clean.

And then there was the year I decided it was cold so I was going to start a fire in the fireplace. You guessed it - I forgot to check to be sure the flue was open and smoked us out of the house - my parents were here for that one. To this day when I talk to my Dad in the wintertime he asks if I remembered to open the flue before starting a fire. LOL

 

[OhMari]

I'm going to get a dig in on my in-laws.
They come to my house for every holiday for 25 years.
Only once, did my inlaws invited us to their house and it was Christmas Eve.


My family all went to Christmas Eve Mass, and then stopped in at their house.
Everyone was starving, everyone had worked that day and then went to church. My kids were all in highschool and in college.
MIL announces, she just kept things small and didn't want to make a lot of fuss. Me and my dh just looked at each other, because we knew what "fuss" meant, "no food".

We had carrots and dip and jello mixed with coolwhip.

When we all realized "that was it" and there was no supper, she huffed down to the basement and brought up Christmas Cookies that she was going to take to work the next day to share with her co-workers. By then we were all putting on our coats and we grabbed a cookie and left. She was handing out her Christmas cards to the kids too with $5.00. (shouldn't complain, a gift is a gift).

The next day, I get up and make a huge breakfast with my dh. He loves cooking. Guess who walks in the door-my inlaws. They said it just didn't seem like Christmas without coming to our house. They stayed all day and I fed them 3 meals that day, I think they finally left around 9 that night.

The following year, we all took a family vacation to Arizona to see our Daughter. It was the best Christmas ever. My MIL is still "ticked" (her favorite word, since she had the worst Christmas ever that year. Of course she did, she had to go to her own daughters house, who doesn't cook either.

 

[HM]

I missed this one as I was now married and having the annual Thanksgiving get-together at my inlaws:

One of our dogs became in great pain during Thanksgiving dinner and my family had to leave the meal to take her to the emergency vet. She was quite ill it turned out and they kept her overnight thinking they could help her. She died in the early morning. My parents regret leaving her to die in that place instead of back home with the family.

Not really a disaster but---
Last Christmas the flu was going around (luckily not the throwing up kind, just chills, aches, pains, fever). My DH had it a few days beforehand, and I came down with it on Christmas morning. Three days later DD got it and finally DS did. My Brothers family lives in another state and had it before they came. We were staying out of town in a house we rented with my extended family of 18. Luckily, I had made the Christmas Eve meal so my duties to the family were done for the holiday. But, on the other hand, no one likes to get sick away from home and their own bed and bath.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I've got a couple of funny now but not funny at the time holiday stories.

The first was the all day cooking of the turkey and then just as my inlaws showed up and I was taking it out of the oven I dropped it on the floor. I ended up making stir fry instead for Christmas dinner. Ooops.

I've also dropped a cherry pie on the floor in the kitchen and had it splatter all over the white cabinets and on my mother inlaws cream color pants. Even the dry cleaner couldn't get those pants totally clean.

And then there was the year I decided it was cold so I was going to start a fire in the fireplace. You guessed it - I forgot to check to be sure the flue was open and smoked us out of the house - my parents were here for that one. To this day when I talk to my Dad in the wintertime he asks if I remembered to open the flue before starting a fire. LOL

Turkey on the floor.....Oh dear, that just stinks. I do hope you have a forgiving mother in-law.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Turkey on the floor.....Oh dear, that just stinks. I do hope you have a forgiving mother in-law.

I was surprised that everything actually turned out ok because we worked together talking and laughing while chopping up vegs and frozen london broil to make the stir fry.

I sure was mortified though - it was my first Christmas cooking for family. More than 30 years ago. Gosh I feel old.

 

[LilyWDW]

There was the second Thanksgiving where I made the whole meal (with assistance from my mom with recipes and the like). Worked all day, everything is done, and as I am getting things set up I start to feel ill. I spent the whole dinner (and the next few days) in the bathroom. Stomach bug. So on top of missing my favorite meal of the year, I also had to call in sick on Black Friday. Ouch!

As for this year, I am waiting for the drama. One cousin (bad cousin as I call her) is already being a pain in the butt about the fact that we are going to a buffet to eat. Oh, and she is driving on a suspended license so if she gets pulled over, she will end up in jail. So who knows if she will even be there for Thanksgiving or Christmas. She is just stupid enough to have that happen!

 

[Tozzie]

Yes, they did, it's Thanksgiving, I bet you that the time for dinner was decided ahead of time, and even if they weren't big mid-day eaters, graciousness dictates that you at least thank the hostess for the food, sounded like that didn't happen.

No actually they didnt, just because someone sets a time you cant make someone be hungry and by her own admission theop left to go to her parents and cry so she didnt give anyone a chance to thank her,. This one is all on her

 

[lizabu]

I was surprised that everything actually turned out ok because we worked together talking and laughing while chopping up vegs and frozen london broil to make the stir fry.

I sure was mortified though - it was my first Christmas cooking for family. More than 30 years ago. Gosh I feel old.

The cherry pie was a goner but I wouldve been calling the 10 second rule on the turkey...lol

 

[OhMari]

The cherry pie was a goner but I wouldve been calling the 10 second rule on the turkey...lol

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

No actually they didnt, just because someone sets a time you cant make someone be hungry and by her own admission theop left to go to her parents and cry so she didnt give anyone a chance to thank her,. This one is all on her

Umm, usually, when I am invited to a holiday meal, I thank the cook as we're sitting down to eat, are you saying that they were railroaded through the buffet line and pushed out the door when it turned out their plates weren't full enough? Then how did they get enough time to eat MIL's store bought pie? Sorry, don't buy it, they were rude, even if they weren't hungry she deserved to be thanked for the effort to make the meal.

 

[Jennasis]

Well, on Christmas Eve DH gets a call from his mother. I can tell by the look on his face that the conversation isn't a good one. Turns out she is REAMING him out for not inviting her to go with us out to dinner on New Year's Eve later that week. We live in NC near MIL. She has us all to herself for every holiday...except for NYE which she doesn;t "do" because she hates staying up late. My parents, who live in NY and I only see once a year, were coming to visit for NYE, and MIL hates my parents, and they equally dislike her. So I made reservations for just the 4 of us to go out to a NYE late dinner (like 11pm).

MIL assumed she would be invited...why I don't know. And layed into DH telling him he was a selfish...insert *****-friendly words here...and that she had bought a new fancy outfit to wear to this dinner (I don't even know how she KNEW about the dinner...DH probably mentioned it offhandedly at some point) and her whole universe was ruined, and it was unforgiveable...railing on and on and on....and then she told him HE SHOULD KILL HIMSELF.

Nope. Not joking/exaggerating here folks.

She hung up on him...He was floored, and pretty upset. I was seeing red and it was all I could do not to call her up myself and tell her off. DH called back after a bit and she screamed some more...and then wanted to know what time we'd be coming over tomorrow, ya know, for Christmas.

I don't even know how it happened...how we came to the conclusion that we should go, but we actually WENT to her house the next day. We ate in icy silence, we opened gifts in icy silence (and we left every gift she gave us behind when we left her house). She bounced around the house in what we later determined to be a manic upswing. then we left.

We cut her out of our lives for the most part after that. There were other incidents she caused, but that was the beginning of her end.

 

[BrookieCookie]

I have one! involving the dreaded stomach bug:

A few days before Christmas we had our church service, and DS was 3 months old. It was decided that since the church had a real baby that year, that he would get to be Jesus in the manger. So DH and I are Mary and Joseph. DS4 was a little Shepard boy. When the shepards gather around I notice DS4 is not looking well...he looks miserable. After church was over he ended up throwing up in the church hallway (at least it wasn't during the service!)

A couple days later, I believe the 23rd, I'm not feeling so well. I'm thinking, is it my imagination or am I getting sick? Then DH calls from work telling me that he has started throwing up. so yes, DH, me, and DS 6 are all sick with vomiting and diarrhea on Christmas Eve/Day. My mother came over to get the baby in hopes he wouldn't get it. She came right in, grabbed him up and got the heck out of our house as fast as she could in hopes of not getting the germ. Didn't work..two days later she came down with it. Good news is the baby never got it, but we refer that year as the Christmas from #%*#

 

[snapppyd]

This past Saturday I was making my Thanksgiving cheesecake.

After we mixed everything and poured it into the pan I noticed it looked thicker than usual.

I put my finger in the raw batter for a taste. SALT!!!! Somehow the sugar and salt got mixed up in the containers in the pantry. We had to dump it in the trash and start over.

I had no more graham crackers - had to get in the car and go to the grocery store, which was jammed.

I'm just "thankful" that I tasted it before baking and bringing to my relatives house.

 

[crazelion]

I take the kids over for Thanksgiving dinner over there birth mothers family house. I walk house with the kids in tow. They told me that can't feed 4 extra mouths and we was not welcome. The kids was crying and everything. We end up at the Golden Corral that year. Now go my mom sisters where the kids is welcome at. The kids is very happy. Should be because they spoil rotten over there.

There is talk that we having our family reunion in Florida nest year.

 

[Wendy31]

One year my cousin showed up uninvited with his disastrous dog, his wife cooked the turkey so long it was completely dry. My great aunts cat (don't even ask how that showed up at my house) chewed the wire to the Christmas tree and it started on fire burning it to a crisp. I got a new tree from outside but little did I know that there was a killer squirrel living inside of it.

Not to mention my work decided to not give me the Christmas bonus I was planning on using to put in an in-ground pool, instead I got a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club. There were cops involved and the swat team.

What a year!!

Wow. The same thing happened to me. Except the cat didn't catch my tree on fire. It just resulted in a burned up chair. The idiot father in law with the cigar burned down the tree because my idiot cousin's dog, unknown to us drank all the water out of the tree stand and dried up the tree.
The idiot father in law would later blow up the storm drain my idiot cousin illegally dumped his RV toilet in. Don't ask me what was in that RV waste. Whatever it was glowed.

Oh, I can top both of these!

In one of our first Christmases (before we had children), DH & I lived in a nice house & had decorated it w/ all the latest electronics & nicest furnishings. I even had new carpet installed.

Our neighborhood was nice, but our neighbors (especially the man) were crazy! W/ a capital C. We tried to avoid them as much as possible.

Well, that particular Christmas, our idiot neighbor decided to make the exterior of his house look like a freaking airport runway. But, because he wasn't very smart, the first time he tried to turn the awful lights on, they kept going off & on & just literally blinding my DH & me. My DH ended up tripping down our stairs while carrying a tray & ruining our new carpet!

They also had their horrid family visiting them who parked an ugly trashy camper between our houses. I won't even try to explain the view I had in the mornings when the cousin would empty the camper's toilet tank... I mean, talk about needing your brain bleach! The smell literally prevented DH from going on his morning run.

But Christmas Eve was the worst! DH & I were having a nice quiet adult dinner, when suddenly, this huge tree comes crashing through our window! Our neighbor had apparently decided to cut down a tree in their yard on Christmas Eve!

And, because my DH wouldn't confront him, I decided that I had to because, seriously, enough was enough! But, when I marched over to knock on their front door, our neighbor opened the door & THREW a wild squirrel onto me & then I was attacked by this huge beastly dog! OMG! I was terrified!

Since Christmas Eve was basically ruined for us after that, I retired to my room w/ a washcloth on my head... only to be interrupted by the SWAT team bursting through my bedroom door!

Apparently, my neighbor had kidnapped his boss. Seriously.

Fortunately, Todd (my DH) & I have since moved.

But that was definitely our worst ever Christmas Eve.