Update--

[mog]

Well Christmas went better than I thought it would. Some tough moments but we got threw it without killing each other. My brother decided two days before Christmas that I was having a sad holiday because I didn't have a tree. I told him that I couldn't get to any of my stuff so he went over to their storage and brought the tree and decorations. My sister in law did not go all out for expensive gifts for all of them so things were good. She cleaned my oven- when I asked her why she said it was the least that she could do after all that we have helped with at their house. My niece came in and easy child came over and we did a lot of baking. Spoke to difficult child and he is doing ok all in all considered. He is still having an issue with that one gentlemen. The man refuses to even listen to anything difficult child tries to say.
Hope all of you had a great one!!

 

[Marguerite]

That sounds like a lovely, shared family Christmas. We took our plastic tree to mother in law's this year. She usually buys a real tree (plantation pine) but it drops needles everywhere and she frets about that more and more. So we took ours down to make life easier.

I'm sorry difficult child is still having problems with that bloke. I hope it can get sorted soon. It sounds, at the very least, like a personality clash. If you present it as such to the officials, then they may be more willing to listen and do something. I do find that blame can get people's backs up and ears closed too fast, which often is a great shame especially when a situation really does require investigation. But if you go in with a 'no blame' approach and THEY find there is blame on the bloke's part, they will be far more likely to fix things for difficult child.

I hope your holiday season continues in tranquility.

Marg