The Outlaws are coming, the Outlaws are coming....One if by land two if by....oh whatever....
My inlaws bought a house near us. A summer house on Lake MI. My father-inlaw has already been in town for a couple of weeks now (he's a teacher with summers off). Tomorrow my mother-inlaw flys in. I'm thrilled can you tell? At least they have their own house now...Let me explain.
You see for Christmas this past year, I entertained the family at my house. Being newlyweds and having a central location, everyone else decided it would be the place to be (everyone else decided this without our consent--but we were forced to go along because the plans were already made). We have a pretty big house, 4 bedrooms 2 baths. We had 4 extra adults and 2 kids sleeping in our house. Our house suddenly felt too small. We needed an extra room, and extra bath, a padded cell. Try stuffing a turkey that has to get in the oven at a certain time, making breakfast for your company and watching a 6month old at the same time because her mom wants to take a shower and grandma is eating breakfast...none of these people being your own family rather your married-into-family, you don't want to impose on anyone; you want to be the perfect host.
I'm fortunate that the meal (for 13 people) turned out okay. No major problems...but lets say, I didn't enjoy Christmas that much last year...and I hated neglecting my own family completely because people were staying at my house. And then Christmas day passed...and they were still there...for almost a week. I've learned from this...it won't happen again this year.
In two weeks the whole fan-damily will be in town. All convening in the same city for 4 days once again. The stars must be in alignment or something. I'm sure I'll have some frightening posts. There are always stories to tell. I don't know if Holland, MI can handle the excitement. I'm am just glad that only one person will be staying with me this time. No 6 month olds screaming through the night. No two year olds feeding my cats an entire bag of cat treats (yes, an entire bag that I had HIDDEN in my dresser). No crowds in my kitchen. No extra trips to Sam's to stock pile for the army I'm feeding. Someone else can have these things this time.
2 comments:
I have to tell you how much I enjoy your writing - you are so good at it. And I'm not just saying that because we are related.
However, that said, I know how you feel, I felt the same way about my in-laws when I was first married 34 years ago. They ruled our life and told us what to do and when to do it. And, we did it with a smile, and we liked it - NOT (does that sound familiar?)
Maybe you should make your meals less appealing and the home less comfortable and scare everyone off. Or feel comfortable that now that the in-laws have their house in town, holidays will be "at their place." You can always hope!
Keep writing - I so enjoy your thoughts (and I'm not biased - much.)
Not done with book 6. Little time to read this weekend with the outlaws around. Hoping to finish tonight. I only have about 50 pages left.
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