How are the holidays going?

[mightymaude]

We are halfway through our slog. Just finished with the ILs, which is the easy part of the week. MIL and FIL are the kids' favorite people. My SIL and her kids are fine, but her two girls are only 4 and 2 and demand a lot of attention. DD did well with the 4 year old constantly wanting to play, but was withdrawing by about 4 every day. She ate dinner with just one of us most nights because she just couldn't handle people/the swirling maelstrom of the house anymore.

Saturday and Sunday we go to my parents and the girl cousins up there (poor DS is the oldest grandchild by 5 years, so he does his best to be nice and play, but is definitely bored a lot of the time). My parents and brothers are extremely resistant to things that are different, and it is a struggle to find commonalities. DS has recently become lactose intolerant, and my mom basically gave up on trying to figure out what to feed him, so I had to create our entire menu. My parents don't understand that both of my kids easily get overwhelmed and push and push when we are there, then my dad gets affronted when one of them melts down as a result. Not matter how many times I explain, it always happens. My brother spanks his kids and when mine melt down over whatever has been happening with my parents (usually related to trying to force my kids to do something) he comments loudly that maybe they need a good whack on the bottom to fix them.

Dreading going. The kids still actually love my parents despite how awful it is when we visit, so we go. When they start not wanting to go, I will happily quit, TBH.

[waverly]

They are going well for the most part. DS was really sick Christmas Eve. He did OK on Christmas kind of up a lot that night. And last night he coughed until 1 am.

My in laws are annoying me,but I guess I am the only one so I will have to suck it up apparently.

[jreeds]

We're through the festivities so I feel comfortable saying we did ok. DS had some moments where we had to get him to a quiet room to give him some space, but overall he did better with the loud, crowded parties than usual. My cousin's son (same age as DS) also has some quirks which makes things a bit edgy between the two of them but thankfully it wasn't too bad this year.

 I'm a little apprehensive about the rest of school break though. He doesn't do well being off routine and they don't go back until the 2nd.

[sahara78]

Things went pretty well overall. DD has decided she doesn’t like Christmas music this year, which has led to a bit of stress. My inlaws arrived on Christmas afternoon, so we split the present opening into two batches. That worked well, she only said she didn’t like one present this year. We went to a playground after lunch on Christmas Day; we were the only ones there!

She did cry through dinner on Christmas because she was disappointed it didn’t snow. I’d told her leading up that it wouldn’t, but that obviously didn’t sink in.

DD has ABA most days for the remainder of the week - good to keep a semblance of routine with school out until Jan 7.

[pipsqueak]

We had the best Christmas in a long time. We had 8 adults and Pip in a small 1 bath house. What we didn't have was my dad. Everyone kept presents reasonably priced but thoughtful. We had no temper flares which is a first. When people got stressed or otherwise needed to leave the group everyone respected that need and allowed the person to go without snide/rude/offensive remarks or getting butt hurt that they were "being ignored".

[freezorburn]

I’m about to get on a red eye to go pick up DS from XILs. So far I have had some peace and quiet. Got out of the city last weekend, went skiing, enjoyed my friends, and did some volunteering. Fighting off a bit of a cold and hoping to sleep well on the plane.