"If they could FLY..."

*Sigh*
I was looking forward to Christmas, this year.
Really, a lot.

I was dying to see Morgan bounce off the walls at Mum's place, and here, opening all her presents.

As it is, the poor wee bugger's had gummy eyes and a sore throat since Xmas eve.
And worse... But I'll get to that.


So, Christmas Day then.
We got up because Dad and his girlfriend Michelle were coming over, and did the present thing. Morgan's definitely not feeling herself... But the chocolate teddy bears helped a little :)

After that, we got dropped off down at Mum's, ready for Xmas dinner - which was good as always.
The Main Present Session came after that, and my heart was breaking - Morgan was trying so hard to be cheerful and enjoy herself but it was plain to see that her eyes were hurting and her cough was annoying her too.
She loved her Duplo, and the wee Little People Zoo I got her - and she got me a set of spicy sauces from Oil And Vinegar.
So "Woo!" there!
Kat got me the new Pratchett, and Grandma and Grandad got the usual Oor Wullie book + hardback retrospective. So I'm sorted for reading material.
Kat seemed to like the MASH DVDs I got her, and hopefully will like the other small bits and pieces that are taking AGES to arrive!

My Stepdad liked his Bond collection, and my Sister loved her Friends book.
Mum had me stumped, but the 6 Feet Under companion proved an amusing choice. "Is this a hint?"

Speaking of mothers...

Around 5pm, the phone rang.
It was Kat's aunt, so I lobbed it over to Kat.
Her Mum came on, and asie from her hearing aid screeching we could hear most of the conversation.

As expected, it was her Petulant Voice asking how dinner was, how Morgan was, and if we were enjoying ourselves.
Kat was perfectly pleasant - "Yeah, fine. Dinner was good... Morgan's still not too well then. Sorry again we're not making it down, but we have no way to get home. Wish everyone a Merry Xmas" etc etc.
"OK, bye. *Click*" from The Evil One... Or should that simply be The Petulant Child? ( She was, in case you hadn't guessed, absolutely shitface drunk again. )

A few minutes later, the phone rang again.
Kat's cousin...

It turned out that The Evil One had actually thrown a tantrum, and had started crying at the coffee table - a blatant attempt at being the martyr and guilt-tripping Kat.
So Kat's aunt offered to pay for a taxi to get us home if we PLEASE came down.

Fuck it, we'll never hear the end of it if we don't... So we did.

Upon our arrival, the first thing to come out of Kat's Mum's mouth ( Aside from a cloud of alcohol vapour ) was "Oh, she is ill! You should just have stayed at Sheena's!" ( Sheena being my mum ) .
Cheeky bitch...

Morgan was no better - if anything she was feeling worse.
She got introduced to Kat's cousins and all the folk who hadn't met her before ( Cousin Gary particularly hit it off with her... Me too - he's a top bloke, and his sister's alright too. )
Before long, though, Morgan needed a nap.
So she lay down on the sofa and tried to sleep - succeeding in the end.
This clearly meant nothing to Kat's Mum though, since she would NOT stop poking, prodding, or even trying to haul Morgan upright by the arms! "Are you having a nice Christmas? Aww, you're so sweet!"

Yeah... And so ILL! LEAVE HER ALONE!
She got so annoying with her whining and baby-bothering that one of Kat's aunts ( Who used to be a teacher ) actually had to yell "Marlen! Leave her ALONE!"
Which did the trick for a while.

( Marlen being Kat's mum... A contraction of Margaret Helen. )

So eventually the booze took her to the "sleepy" stage of pissedness, and she hauled herself up on to the sofa.
Nice of her, that - To sprawl out and every so often straighten her legs and actually kick Morgan!
Or stretch out and put her stinking feet on the little one as if she was a cushion!

The rage was seething in me... Really, I was getting angrier with her by the minute.

We shouldn't even have gone DOWN there - Nothing whatsoever against the rest of Kat's family, who are all great. Just her - Her petulant, childish selfishness, and bullying attitude to her daughter.
I'm sure the rest of them understood that we could always see them on another occasion - and I made DAMN sure that they knew that Kat had offered to go and visit her Mum on Xmas morning... so there was no way she could play the Martyr card there..

( Actually, she had been invited to MY Mother's for Xmas dinner - and had the CHEEK to have a go at Kat for it, complaining that she doesn't know my family, and that she was SO embarrassed being invited to "That woman's house".

See what I mean? She's a childish idiot. )

Kat ended up telling her Mum in front of everyone to shut up, and stop waking Morgan - be it with yelling to be heard over the general chatter, or kicking her while on the sofa.
She also pointed out that her Mum's excuse of "Maybe having had a wee bit too much" holds precisely NO water - since her Doctor has told her repeatedly not to drink ANY alcohol while on her meds, as it reacts badly.

For someone who claims not to have a drinking problem... She's got one hell of a drinking problem.

We got away in the end, and the irony of it was that it would have been a very pleasant visit were it not for Morgan's illness, and Marlen's sheer drunken bullshit.


The silver lining here is that with any luck, the bullshit is over.
Kat's family have now witnessed what her Mum can be like, with everyone present including Kat and myself.
There's no pretending or sweeping it under the carpet anymore - It's out in the open now.


And from now on, if the woman cannot be trusted to look after HERSELF - i.e. not to drink when her Doctor has told her that alcohol reacts badly with her medication - then she is not being trusted to look after our child.
I doubt there'll be any complaints from the family, no matter HOW much she whines to them that we're treating her badly, when we tell her that she's not looking after Morgan until she's proven herself to be completely teetotal from now on.
And even then, her attitude needs to improve as well.

More on THAT later :)

Merry Christmas, everybody!