Ugh. I had the Thanksgiving From Hell with the in-laws.
A bit of background: To be fair to MIL, she is going through a very rough patch. GMIL (MIL's M) is 95 years old, and despite being healthy all her life (until recently, she was hospitalized only twice, and it was for the birth of her two children), age has caught up with her. She's been in and out of hospital for congestive heart failure, and she recently had an episode that I believe is the beginning of the end. It is possible that we will not see her again before she passes on.
MIL's brother is useless - he fled to California long ago, leaving all "taking care of Mom" responsibilities" to his sister. GMIL is also my husband's last surviving grandparent. All my grandparents passed on long ago.
The ILs were scheduled to come to us on Saturday 11/26. Knowing everything that was going on, we had offered to host. Well, my husband and I had a huge row that morning, and we called them asking to postpone to Sunday so we could sort things out between us. MIL
***INFORMED*** us that they were coming on Saturday whether we wanted them there that day or not. (There was no reason they couldn't have come on Sunday instead.)
So they turned up and proceeded to spend the next
EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS whingeing about everything going on.
I know they needed to vent about GMIL's medical situation, and that's fine, and I listened patiently and advised as I could. (I'm not in the medical profession, but when you're the daughter of two doctors, you pick up a few things.)
But it went downhill from there. When we got to the point where MIL was whining because her bridge scores weren't as good as they could be, I wanted to toss her off the balcony. Your mother has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel and you're worried about your
bridge game???
They arrived at 3 and stayed until 11:30. FIL downed most of a handle of Tanqueray. MIL had several drinks of Bailey's (it doesn't take much to get her drunk). And there was wine. So, on top of everything, they were sloshed. I should have cut them off, but that's easier said than done.
AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH.
They need to go to Florida.
And stay there.