A difficult day looming....
I think I'm in the same boat as many on here, we are retired now and I've always had a house full of family on Christmas day, for about 30 years, adults would sit elbow to elbow around the table and the children had their own little table next to us for Christmas Dinner
Later, after a buffet tea, we'd squeeze onto the settee and chairs, and sit on bean bags and cushions on the floor to watch TV, pull crackers, eat chocolates and chat, great fun..
..happy days! Then gradually the children grew up, married, and moved away, and we lost elderly parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. We have just one child, grown up now and happily married but no children (yet), they take turns on Christmas Day with each others parents, so last year we were on our own with my 91 yr old Mum in Law who has Vascular Dementia. It was the worst Christmas Day we'd ever had
I served dinner too late, the meat was tough (even though it was Gammon which had been in the slow cooker for 9 hours overnight and crumbled as we sliced it) she didn't like the mushrooms (which actually were chestnuts
) the sprouts were too small and the Yorkshire Puddings were too big! Nothing was right for her, the house was cold (we were absolutely stewed) our Christmas tree was awful, the programmes on TV were all "a load of rubbish", our budgie was too noisy "I don't know how you put up with him", there were too many cars going past....the list was endless.
Just when we'd got her settled with a cuppa to watch something she actually wanted to watch on TV, she suddenly got up and shouted "I want to go home, NOW"!
This year our daughter and son in law are joining us for lunch, so at least we'll have some respite and someone to talk to for a couple of hours.
Like others on this forum, I also get upset at the Christmas adverts, and had a good cry in the shower tonight. I think we all probably grieve for "Christmas past"
Personally, I miss my lovely Mum so much, especially at times like this, and my Mum in Law is becoming increasingly difficult to cope with as her Dementia progresses, and she has so many other ailments too. It is so sad to see her like this, however, she is 91 and I hope that her pain won't be too long lasting. She is also so unaware that we are in our mid 60's, with health problems of our own, and find it difficult to cope with her care.
Sorry for being a misery chops, tomorrows another day.....lets see what it brings!