Have it catered then charged to his card. Done that and wore the t-shirt.

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LOLA if that was done and every one paid the labour for what many women do on christmass i think many would dowen size thir christmass expectasion of thir wifes and mums.

All good ideas!

Chatty,
Did you watch that video Lola put there, "The Boy Does Nothing?"
That is excellent! Does he wash up? Does he clean up? Does he brush up? No! The Boy Does Nothing!" Remind you of anyone?
Loved it.

Thing is ladies, MIL lives alone; she spends holidays at my house. Now for the sake of a smooth marriage, what can I do?
My SIL hates to cook. I live way out in the country. My brother has cancer. And its bad. So I wouldn't feel right about not having dinner for him and his wife. Doubt if any caterers are around these parts on Christmas Eve.

I think your instincts are right to have dinner. Just keep it simple: stew, something in the crockpot, spaghetti, etc. No need to get fancy if you are not in the mood. For those who do the big turkey thing at Christmas, I think it's great but gave that up years ago. (The only reason I think it's useful is for the leftovers, so that's a consideration). Can you tell your SIL to bring dessert? If not, buy it or get some cookies and ice cream. Serve packaged rolls. There's no law that says how elaborate the the meals need to be.

For breakfast, either leave them with cereal and toast and lunch fixings for later. A turkey breast, which is much less trouble to cook than a big turkey, is good for leftovers and lunches. Done.

That's the point of the exercise, Celt. To counter that expectation. Preparation of the family Christmas dinner ought not to be just the mother or wife's effort.

I've been thinking about this post. My problem really isn't the
work, I have some dumb mental block about cooking for certain
people. When I make a meal for my brother and SIL I generally
do fine. I don't screw much of anything up. But when I cook for
my husband's brother and his wife, or my cousin and her husband,
I always mess up something. For example: the dumplins didn't
plump up, once; the chicken was overdone 'n too dry ; the beef wasn't completely cooked, so I pan fried it, to get rid of the redness, that made it tough as shoe leather. Now I can cook those things for WB and myself and they turn out great. The same stuff for WB's SIL or cous's hubby, and it's disastrous. I cannot cook for certain people. Those people intimidate me. Any of you have that problem or is it just me?

its always when we most need a dinner to come out right or feel most presured it just dose't go together as it should, i think its nerves and intimidatision as you said.

i once made a great fish pie for my folks on thir first visite to edinburge, i forgot to put the fish in the pie lol. typical eh!

no recipie for relaxed cooking though, can you buy ready prepared and just oven heat it?

Celtic,
I think that's what I'm going to have to do. I'll get something
pre-prepared from now on. I've messed up too many meals for my
husband's SIL. And I like her. But she's one of those high-class
broads and an ole farm girl. The two don't go together. My cuz'
hubby is one those guys who knows everything and is never wrong
about anything. You know what I mean.

I have a story to share: Not so funny back then but it is now.

When my first husband Eddie and I were married, his older brothers were both married and my one SIL was the Queen of the family, or so she thought. My FIL instantly loved me and showed it openly. Which made Eddie very happy. His mom was a reserved, quiet woman who almost never spoke to me before my son was born...

I have always been a great cook, my mother taught me well and his family didn't use any spices but salt & papper. very bland meals. So I was anxious to have them over for dinners.

When Eddie and I bought our first little house I had both set of parents over for dinner and then the following weekend was having my BIL's and SIL's over.. One set came and we sat there waiting for the other ones to show, the snooty one I called her to myself... A half hour later they arrived. My darling Eddie said lets eat! My one BIL acted as if he hadn't eaten in a month and kept saying, oh this is so good, so did my SIL who admitted she hated cooking.
The second couple just picked around at the food and when Eddie said, hey whats the matter, eat up we have plenty of food and some fabulous dessert.

Well, this bitch says, oh, we're not very hungey we stopped at Burger King on the way here, sorry we were loate but hardly a day goes by that I don't have to have my Burger King.

Eddie looked at his brother and said, how about you, did you eat a burger too? He said, just a small one but everything looks and smells so good, I'm digging in. Everyone ate but her and she kept throwing the dagger looks at her poor husband. Especially when he said, honey, this is the best spaghetti sauce I ever tasted, you should get the recipe.
Then I really knocked their socks off with my homemade walnut cake with cannoli filling.

She and I never became friends. I tried a couple more times for the fsmily sake but the mnicer I was the rottener she was. She really freaked out when my son was born and our MIL went ga-ga over him, and me too, finally!!!

Needless to say we had many dinners and her husband use to show up looking for meaatball or sausage sandwiches on his way to work. It was our little secret for years. I NEVER invited her to our home again...

Chatty,
Thanks. I enjoyed reading that. I suppose every family has those
self-imposed high-class, nose-in-the-air, dames around. Hubby's SIL requested $50.00/per item, tableware for a wedding gift.
It'd be a cold day, you know where, before I spend $50.00 per utensil for any silverware; I don't care if it was made out of gold; and, that wasn't. This lady is a good cook. If relaxed, I don't have any problem. I can't believe that gal you spoke of was so inconsiderate as to say she stopped at Burger King before coming to your place. Geese. She's a piece of work!

Of course she only did that to insult me, like maybe my food wouldn't be eatable or something. She hated me, I was 10 times better looking and funnier so that all eyes were on me when the family get togethers. I never cared, wasn't interested in attention from anyone but my fiancee and then new husband. But apparently she loved being the adorable DIL. I tried liking her, we were close in age and I wanted to have someone to pal around with BUT!!!

I found out years later that she even pulled Eddie aside at our engagement party and said I wasn't the kind of girl for him, I looked cheap and acted much to forward. She said that because I always hugged my MIL and FIL and I could tell they weren't use to that kind of affection. But with me they had no choice and after awhile they were hugging me. Some people are jealous without reason, I called it her insecurity, had nothing to do with me.