I’m not talking about dysfunctional, I-can’t-wait-to-bring-this-up-in-group stuff, just stuff that was incredibly annoying. C’mon, everyone has a family member that irritates the snot out of them even though they love said family member to pieces.
My in-laws stayed with us for 2 days, and they are very sweet people. But my father-in-law kept meowing at my cat in this weird, loud voice. My mother-in-law insisted on taking the dishes out of the dishwasher, before I ran it, and washing them and then putting them back in. And they both worried that I had done something wrong in either thawing or cooking the turkey and that we were all going to die from some uncooked-poultry disease. Little stuff, I know, but enough to make me breifly consdier homicide or divorce.
My best freind’s brother is newly vegetarian, which wasn’t a problem, but he is also into some zen thing and he can’t let any of his food items touch any other food item and had to rearrange the table so that the food was in the “right order” (Sorry if I’ve offended anyone else who does this!).
Actually, I was smart this year. I didn’t visit them. I stayed in my own snug little home and had a wonderful day of watching old Nova shows. I also preempted the “strikes” by calling them early and saying happy turkey day before any fights could get going. Then I took the phone off the hook and slid into a hot bath with a good book. AHHHHH!!!
In the past, petty annoyances such as weird food things like you’ve mentioned have happened. I know this is petty (but it’s MY pettiness) but my father’s new wife refuses to make turkey day a “little special”. Now, hey, I know all the nutritional benefits of potato skins but for ONE BLOODY DAY can’t we peel the potatoes to make nice, creamy, lump free mashed potatoes? NOOOOOO!
I’m sorry, I KNOW it’s petty of me, but ONE day isn’t going to hurt (yes, I’m aware that the flip side of leaving them in on this ONE day won’t hurt either but…) Sheesh! It looks yucky and it doesn’t hold gravy as well and… damn it, she is fucking with thirty years of tradition!
And I won’t even get into the weird thing with sweet potatoes and marshmallows…
Well I’m in the area where both my parents and my in-laws are in short driving distance. I have to have 2 thanksgiving dinners or else I “like” someones else’s dinner better.
My mother in-law makes Neon yellow giblet gravy. She actually puts in yellow food coloring, like it is supposed to be that way. She also insisted on having my husband drink milk, when I told her that he would like a coke. She also makes us go around the table every year and come up with something we are grateful for. But it is themed. Last year it was the “best invention” your grateful for. Mine was Air conditioning. I live in Florida for Christs sake! They looked at me like I was nuts. (they got air conditioning only 15 years ago) This year I didn’t have to answer what the best think I was grateful for. They decided it was “great in-laws” :rolleyes:
At my parents house, we make it a ritual to get drunk. Then we sit the whole time at dinner talking loudly and making stupid jokes. My mother insists on putting everyone at the good table, but always says that we have enough room without adding leafs to the table. We never do.
Boy I bitch a lot about one day, hell two hours of one day. I’ll stop now.
I went to thanksgiving at my cousin’s house. We were eating around five but he called me the evening before and told me had just redone his rec room and emphasized that I should come over early and “spend the day”. I didn’t want to interfere with their lunch, so I told him I would arrive sometime between noon and one. As it turned out I was delayed somewhat and didn’t arrive until after 1:30, but as soon as I walked in it was clear my cousin hadn’t shared his plans with his wife who was still cleaning the house and preparing food and was clearly not expecting anyone this early. Of course, I didn’t want to look like a jerk all by myself so I made sure I told her about my conversation with her husband.
Thanksgiving.
I think that the worst part of it this year was that my cousin’s husband kept announcing to anyone who would listen that she “Must be on the PMS.” Yep, this charming young man thought that it was funny to tell everyone that she was bitchy because of her cycles, when everyone there could have told him that she’s been bitchy since about 6 years old. So instead of having a cheerfully-bitchy cousin like usual, this year we had a weeping, non-communicative cousin with homicide in her eyes.
sigh
Once again my brothers daughters sat on their asses and watched the table being cleared and the dishes washed and didn’t lift a finger to help.They have come to Thanksgiving and Easter dinner at our house since my brothers divorce and have never gotten their hands wet. Thats about ten years .
Are you kidding? After eating loads of cornbread dressing what do you think they were doing? FART’N and FART’N!!! 
Well, if we discount the typical uber-conservative fascist arguments and complete disregard of everyone else’s opinion and insistence that the white race is the only one worth listening to UNLESS they happen to be car salesmen, paint store owners, cops, government servants and everyone in authority who isn’t him…well, if we discount that, he pretty much just says “Hello” and “Goodbye”.
I think the highlight was when we were watching the Price is Right (PLINKO! Plinko ROCKS!) and he accused the makers of that august game show of shows (who , of course, are Jews)
of fixing Plinko so that blacks and Hispanics (of which I’m one) could win prizes to supplement their welfare and get out of paying taxes on. I turned to him and said “Yes, Neil, I’m sure that’s exactly how it works. The blacks and Jews use reverse-engineered technology out of the Roswell incident to fix game show games, and then the government uses black helicopter squadrons to track your viewing preferences, in conjunction with the RAND corporation, to make sure that you’re taxed mysteriously for things you can’t remember buying.”
His response? “Yeah, sure, I’ll go along with that!”
He knew I was being a smartass, but then again, that’s a full-time job for me. Yeesh.
These are people who don’t have cable because they “refuse to pay for television”. Granted, I watch about four hours of TV a week, yet still pay for the good stuff. Why? So it doesn’t suck. Oh well, thank Yahweh for Beaujolais Nouveau.
Wait a minute - Byzantine, do you mean that this woman mashed the potato skins into the mashed potatoes?!? That’s just… bizarre.
I celebrated Thanksgiving with some of my Norskie in-laws. Norskies do not have the tradition of picking fights on holidays, thank random deity, and Thanksgiving is novel to them so they don’t bring any baggage to it. As a result it was mostly a quiet day. Except that someone who shall remain nameless decided that he was going to show off his piano skills just when the womenfolk had gotten settled into a good conversation about 2-3 meters away from the damn piano. I’d expect this from a little kid, but the guilty party is in his forties.
Oh yeah, and my 15 year old nephew borrowed my computer and messed up all the settings, but he always does that.
This year there wasn’t anyone annoying me. I guess that means that I was the annoying relative. 
Well, there was my 2yo daughter who would not quit picking on my sister-in-law’s grandnephew, also 2. She wouldn’t let him do anything, even look at her. When I asked her why she wouldn’t play nice with him, she said in a disgusted tone, “He can’t talk.” (He could talk, he was just afraid to open his mouth around her.) At one point she took his dinosaur toys and told him that he could share with her by watching her play with them while standing next to her rather than from across the room. My sister says she’s just figured men out already. 
She was the most annoying relative at this year’s Thanksgiving celebration.
Wait, there are people who take the skins OFF potatoes before mashing? Next you’ll be telling me there’s a way to sweeten drinks other than with sugar, or, even, in some far-off land, “Diet Spam”!!!
C’mon, texture, flavor and vitamins-what’s wrong with 'em?
Of course, I put (routinely) about a head of garlic per batch of mashed potatoes and put hot sauce on everything.
Yes, even crackers, bagels and (once) ice cream.
Number one annoyance:
NO MASHED POTATOES!!! I sit down, look around at my step-mother’s table, and there are no mashed potatoes. None.
Because my parents are divorced, I get to have TWO thanksgiving dinners. Its quite wonderful. But this year my genius brother decides that we should only have one, at my dad and step-mother’s, and then dessert at my mother and step-father’s. But once I saw those baked potatoes (why even bother?), I knew that I would hold out for that second dinner (my step-father’s family would be eating at mom’s place).
But, to make matters worse at my step-mother’s place, her sister was in town with her husband and 7 year old daughter. They are great people, except for one thing. They insist on treating their daughter like a full-grown adult. She sets her own bedtime, she makes her own rules, etc. Well, she decides she doesn’t want to sit at the kid table. So she sits on the side of the table with the least number of chairs, making me and my brothers sit on the other side, as cramped as can be.
Crikey.
We hosted the inlaws this year. After dinner, while hubby was showing his dad the wonders of the internet, I switched the TV from football to Funny Girl. Bro-in-law took this as his cue to comment - repeatedly and annoyingly - on Barbra’s appearance (like he’s a looker). He also decided that we wanted to hear HIM sing… forget that he didn’t know the lyrics… or the melody…
He’s an ass.
They’re all coming again for Christmas - I’ll have to make sure we don’t watch any musicals that day.
Holy crap, I thought I had a time, but you people put me to shame.
I can only offer my little-shit, whiney, pissy 4-year old nephew who spent his entire time at our house screaming and yelling about not wanting to be there. “Oh, he’s just having an anxiety attack” sez the parents. Anxiety attack? He’s four! What the hell anxiety does he have? And don’t even think about laughing or having fun in front of him when he’s not the center of the known universe, or else he’ll have another friggin’ temper tantrum. Do me a favor and don’t bring him to my house ever again. Little bastard.
Oh, and his ditzy space-cadet mother, my sister-in-law. She’ll ask you a question, and before you get about 7 words of a reply out, she turns around and walks off on another air-headed tangent with someone else. Why do I even bother answering her?
Let’s not forget the pinch bug that was walking across the kitchen floor. We’re out in the country, not in some de-luxe apartment in the sky, so it’s not like a bug in the house is an alien invasion. Ditzy starts screaming and freaking out because of the bug. You’re thirty-fucking-five years old, isn’t it about time you got over being so hysterical about such things? Gee, I wonder where the kid gets it from. :rolleyes:
**What annoying things did your family do at Thanksgiving? **
They gathered together under one roof. No good can come of this.
Gotta go with Crunchy’s answer - pretty much sums up how our holiday went.
For some reason, the SO’s family thought it would be a good idea to put 35 people in a two bedroom townhouse for a full Thanksgiving dinner. “Sure - we can cram 'em all in here - put chairs down the hallway”. Who knows where on the “yep - that’ll work!” scale they thought THIS belonged.
Coupled with his brother’s attitude (he has never, for the entire time I’ve known him ever said anything even remotely resembling “nice”) and his girlfriend’s habit of putting “fuck” into every single sentence she speaks, it was quite the day. And the SO wondered why, after an hour of this nonsense, I wanted to go home. :rolleyes:
What annoying things did my family do at Thanksgiving?
Besides showing up?
How about this: my aunt pitched a fit because her hideous finance wasn’t invited. After my my aunt showed up late. He brought a six-pack of beer for himself (we serve wine at dinner) and drank it. And it wasn’t even good beer.
Um, not quite sure what happened there.
It should read: After my parents were pressured into inviting him, he and my aunt showed up late. He brought a six-pack of beer for himself (we serve wine at dinner) and drank it. And it wasn’t even good beer.
Well, Fairy Chat Mom-you did get to drool over Omar Sharif…that’s something.
My aunt, god love her, is the most annoying person in the world. We get there, and because she’s always in a hurry, she’s like, “Okay, they’re here, let’s eat!” It’s 12:30!
And my mom brought her stuffed mushrooms which had to go in the oven. My aunt’s like, OH, we don’t need those!" Excuse me, but maybe Mum would like some, Patty! So she keeps rushing us along. And she brought this hideous pineapple stuffing (which I didn’t touch, I only like Stove Top Stuffing! :D). BUT…get this-she works in the cafeteria of a parochial school. She claims that the women there wrap the food in SARAN WRAP and then foil and bake it.
Um, Auntie dearest, they probably use OVEN BAGS!!! So the saran melted over the edges of her stupid pineapple shit-which only she and my uncle touched. Um, you NEVER use saran wrap like that! Isn’t it toxic when it melts?
And she puts salt on fucking everything, even though she’s not supposed to after a heart attack, and she and my uncle criticize everything WE eat (you don’t eat salt? You don’t drink whole milk? Or fried foods every day of the week?).
And she keeps telling my dad she can eat whatever she wants.
RIGHT…but she bitches about gaining weight. She’s always looking for pity-I quit smoking, it was soooo hard…poor Patty.
:rolleyes:
Then she had to leave almost right after dinner, and of course, my mom and I always get stuck doing the dishes-my sister was a brat. So my mom said, Colleen, you come and start the dishes. And of course, sis refuses. So I offer to start, and she says okay, that means your sister will get the harder ones! So Colleen comes RUNNING in and yanks the towel out of my hand.GRRR Well, I went into the living room, and while I was waiting, I was lying down on the recliner, and my sister barges in (she’s 15, I’m 22) and says, “Get out of my seat, mom said to get in there NOW!”
Well, I KNOW my mother didn’t say that, so I keep my eyes closed and try to ignore her. But the little wench starts pulling my arm and yanking me out of hte chair…>I won’t budge. So she fucking BITES my hand. So I ignore her still, and my dad comes in, and she goes, “Daddy, she won’t help-she took my seat.” And my dad starts to yell at ME, and I’m like, “Dad-the little snot bit me!” And he’s like, “Kathleen, you’re 22 years old, stop it, the two of you!”
So of course, I go in and ask my mother if she called for me, (she didn’t). And she had me dry only a few of the dishes. And gave the majority of it to my sister.
And my aunt and uncle are laughing about my sister, and meanwhile, my mother and I are in the kitchen, FUMING.
Then, of course, my aunt has to rush out.
Gosh, never fucking again! Next year, I hope we have Thanksgiving. I doubt my aunt and uncle will come-they never want to come to our house, but my aunt acts so pissy if we don’t go to her’s. She doesn’t like traveling-but she’ll go to my uncle’s house in Lancaster PA. (We live in Pittsburgh, and she’s in Ligonier-we’re CLOSER, DAMMIT!)
And now she says because she doesn’t want to come to our house, she’s going to mail our Xmas presents. Fine, whatever. But she told my mother that she got a shirt for my dad. “Only they didn’t have the right size, so I just got him a large-he can just exchange it.” Um, how rude and selfish is that! She just wants to get everything over with quickly. I don’t care if she gets me a gift-it’s that, if she does, she puts no thought into it, and gets upset if it’s something I don’t like, or it doesn’t fit.
Now, don’t get me wrong-I DO love my aunt. She has always been VERY good to me. But ever since my uncle lost his job a few years back (he was laid of from Sears-he was a top manager or whatever…), and has gotten several new jobs, if not bad ones, she just has this attitude that’s she a martyr, and we all have to feel sorry for her!
sigh
What annoying things did your family do at Thanksgiving?
Not a single d@amn thing! Didn’t see a frickkin’ one of them. Didn’t want to, didn’t have to, so I didn’t.
You see? There are advantages to being a self declared orphan.
[sub]BESIDES, SUE DUHNYM’S THANKSGIVING PARTY ROCKED![/sub]