Ok, I'm Losing It !

My grandparents and auntie got here on the 23rd. We moved beds around so that we had a bedroom with two beds in it and we had our extra couch for them to sleep on. My Grandfather sleeps on a couch at home and he also falls alseep watching the tv so we even offered to set up the tv from our room in the upstairs bedroom so he could have his own tv to watch. Well, he got here and expected to be able to sleep right in the middle of the living room on THAT couch like he did last year. We explained that is was hard on the rest of us that wanted a place to sit, etc. and that we had setup other accomodations. Well, he threw a little temper tantrum and basically told us that we didn't love him because we wouldn't let him sleep wherever he wanted. That started off their visit...

Sunday the 24th was a pleasant day. Mom and Grandma both came to church with us which was a treat. We attended the candlelight service that night as well. After that we drove around looking at Christmas lights on the way home from church. Oh, we stopped at Mc D's sometime in there too. Came home and we let the kids open their "Incredibles" pajamas. We sent the kids to bed, then we stuffed their stockings.

Christmas Day. We opened presents around 9am. Hubby got all the batteries installed into everything while I started Christmas dinner. Around 1pm the kids were still playing with all their goodies in the front room. My mom decided to move my grandfather's coat so the kids would stay out of it---out fell a GUN. She brought it into the kitchen where I was still cooking and showed it to me. We both spent a good 5 mins checking to see if the thing was loaded. Praise the Lord it wasn't! I went outside and told my grandfather that he needed to take it to his truck right away and that I couldn't have guns in my house at ALL. He didn't the big deal since it wasn't loaded, but I insisted that he not bring it back into the house.

Well, he threw another temper tantrum and ordered my grandmother and aunt to get their stuff together and that they were going back home because he was obviously "unwelcome" at our house. My mom got angry and put a stop to my grandma and aunt leaving. She told him that if he was leaving, that he was leaving alone and not ruining Christmas for everyone else. Mom had his truck blocked with her car but somehow he got his truck out by way of the neighbor's driveway. Grandma got upset because my grandfather is a very unstable diabetic and not able to care for himself so we ended up calling the State Patrol after he'd been gone for 2 hours. He made it home fine and stayed there till this last weekend. He drove himself back out to pick up grandma and auntie but ended up here, stranded at a store, with his blood sugar so high that his monitor would not even register it, at LEAST 600! Me and Gram had to go pick him up.

They ended up staying the night, after much persuasion, and left on Saturday. I don't understand how they can feel so unwelcome here. We went out of our way to make them welcome and comfortable. Mom said that grandpa just wants to be able to do and say whatever he wants, if you don't let him, you don't love him. That's sad, isn't it? Well, I do love grandpa but this is my house and I just can't let him come in here and be rude to me and my family and "do whatever he wants". It's just not right. My gram and aunt live with it everyday so it doesn't bother them as much and they don't understand why we can't just "overlook" it to keep the peace. I'm not one to just cause trouble but the things he says are just incredible rude and I spend his whole visit wondering what mean thing he's going to say next. And I could just not get over the gun thing. It bothered me because he's brought one before, and I told him last time that guns aren't allowed in my house. When we lived in Washington, he would smoke in my house at night when he thought we were all sleeping and didn't know. This after I told him "no", my baby had CONSTANT asthma and he couldn't be anywhere NEAR smoke! I threw a fit then because I had just gotten his asthma under control and here in the middle of the night smoke comes wafting upstairs through the heating vent. Bottom line is that he doesn't CARE what I want, he just wants to be able to do whatever he wants. And I'm not standing for it in my own house anymore!

Ok, done venting:)

After that whole deal, we had dinner which consisted of Ham, mashed potatoes/gravy, scalloped corn, fancy green salad, rolls, and pie. Dinner was a little strained but was pleasant enough. Like I said before, I'm thankful that Christmas is MORE than family togetherness, gifts, etc. We have a Holy God, who humbled himself and came down to dwell amongst us sinnners, so that He could pay our debt forever, a debt we could never come close to paying so that we could live forever with Him in paradise. Wow, what a reason to celebrate!

Ok, on to our Disneyland trip....next post.