Blink and You'll Miss it.

Time spent cleaning up the garden 6 hours.
Time spent cleaning the house 2 hours.
Time spent cooking the meal 5 hours.
Total time the inlaws spent in my home 2 1/4 hours.

I don't regret the gardening and cleaning, after all I do that for me as much as them. I care about how my home looks and it needed to be done.

The cooking was mostly the time the turkey was cooking, though there were potatoes to peel, and salad to make and at least the last hour before the meal was constant work. Still, the time expenditure is to be expected for a big roast dinner.

The inlaws arrived around 5:40. Then SIL who was supposed to be the last to arrive got there around 6. Everyone else was there by 6:30 and dinner was served at 7:00. By 8:00 they had eaten and left. Dinner, desert, gone. And that's the thing that makes me craziest about my husband's family.

If it were my family there'd be several people helping clean up after the meal, then we'd get to desert when the dishes were done and finally drag ourselves away when we realized that tomorrow is a work day. Through it all we'd sit and talk. That's something his family is just not good at. At least I'm used to it now.

Happy Mother's Day!