Pre Christmas Christmas over at my parents today.
It was a crap night last night, Davies woke about an hour after I went to sleep crying with pain about his ear hurting (cue guilt attack about taking him to noisy concert and standing a bit near the speakers for a short time) so he ended up being calpoled and coming into bed with me, Ady went into his bed, and then Tarly woke at about 5am and stood at the bottom of the stairs yelling for Ady for about 20 minutes being ignored!
I went and shouted at her to go back to bed, she shouted back that she didn’t want me, she wanted Daddy and her milk so I went back to bed. Ady eventually did get up and so we had a row about him giving in to her too much as I flatly refuse to get up with them before 6am unless they are ill – if he wants to then he can!
Dad came over to go logging with Ady so I made some mince pies with Scarlett while they were gone and then shot off to get the week’s food shopping from Co-op in further cost cutting mindset. It probably was cheaper but I bought a few Christmas related bits and pieces so it came in just on budget.
Back home to unload the shopping, attempt to get the children dressed, rescue some washing that I had turned to tumble dry thinking it was the washing I had left in there only to discover it was actually a new load that Ady had washed and was not suitable for tumble drying, wrap my Granny’s Christmas present and generally slam about the house, yelling at the children, plotting to leave Ady and run away from home to Mexico without telling anyone!
We arrived at Quinta (which is my parents house and I am going to start refering to it as on here as it is far easier to say than Mum and Dad’s all the time) a mere hour late! Had lunch, sat around while Dad, Ady and Frazer watched football, Granny played with the children and Mum put the decorations up in a very half hearted manner. Sometimes Mum is excellent with Scarlett and other times it is just so obvious she favours Davies it is uncomfortable to watch – today was one of those days. 🙁 Everything Scarlett did caused a sigh or rolled eyes and she was quite sharp with her a couple of times. Having been pretty sharp with the world and it’s wife myself the last couple of weeks I didn’t feel in the right to say anything so I just kept out of the way really. On the way in Davies and I spent a few minutes looking at Dad’s pond which had a layer of ice on one half. We talked about why (one of the areas has a pump with a waterfall so the water has a fair bit of movement, the other side is mostly still, also the sun was shining more on one side due to shadows from the trees) and dipped our feet onto the ice to see if it floated and how thick it was.
Children are now both asleep, Ady (poor downtrodden Ady) is cooking dinner and I’m about open a bottle of festive cheer and start wrapping the children’s Christmas presents so I can make a list of anything still to sort out / get this week and feel like I have myself organised. Very odd feeling not buying any presents for my family due to not having any money – for a while I felt quite relieved, now it just feels a bit hoilow.
Like the toe dipping 🙂 We did Drusillas- it was FREEZING!
Poor down trodden Ady and now you’re thinking of leaving him. Poor darling. Sod getting up early- I refuse before 7am!
Write them a poem each, illustrate it and frame it in one of those cheap clip frames. I’d love something like this far more than the stuff I’m likely to get!
Great idea – personal and well thought out is much better than anything else!
Well it depends on what you would have spent instead. A poem in a frame or a 5k plasma telly…..let me think…… 🙂
😀 normally IRO £50 each for Mum, Dad and Frazer and about £200 for each other on me and Ady. Luckily having children means the ‘charm’ of a home made pressie by a child means so much more than even a £5K plasma telly 😉
£200 on Ady! Good grief, don’t tell Bob that. Actually, £200 on you. Maybe you shouldn’t have told ME that! Now I can go to bed and feel hard done by 😉
I always spent more on Tony than he did on me. I also hate the way he would race around on Christmas eve trying to cobble together some sort of gift. This year I am not spending a penny on him or him on me. The decorating is costing a bomb, we are giving the children a £10 budget for each of us and that’s it. We have also cut the children’s budget this year. £ I would normally spend around £200.
Of course a plasma would be better than a poem but I’m being realistic. My family will get me nothing, my mum will send a cheque, SIL will get me something to wear BIl if he bothers will get me something naff and I’ll feel crap for thinking it! At least a poem would show thought in my case.
Ah, Chris and I haven’t done presents for well years! we get ourselve a new years sales treat most years – new telly last year. not plasma though [rofl1!]
well, up to this year, £20 parents and sister and little nanny, £10 all else, £30-50 ish children depending. [BB got nothing last year, and the porticos aeroplane this year, so still on zip!]
this year, most are having home made, with my mum and dad a 5 pressie on top. my nephew and neice about £10, and Sb I’ved added up to about £45
does that make you feel better.
Mind you, my parents give us good practical presents [this year some paint and 3/4 of a bunkbed, my sister giving the remaining 1/4! My inlaws have given us a cheque – last year we had john lewis vouchers from most people.
It may not be romantic, but I actually like the frugality, as not a huge amount, and pretty much all is actually wanted.
I’ve been more sensible with kids this year, i gave myself an £80 budget for each of the big 3 and come in at about that. They do have a couple of shared presents that make it more like £100 each but those are mostly financed by relative subs that i know will arrive.
Max and i rarely spend more than £10 on each other; this year we were going to buy a recordable dvd player but now we aren’t even doing that – just a dvd each! rofl! (And he paid for his own!)
You are all so sensible – I need to get more sensible with Emma’s Birthday and Christmas budgets. I do always think that she doesn’t get anything from any of my family, some things from Steve’s mum and a few very close friends. However, I do push in a lot of educational stuff too!