Birthday season is almost over...

This past weekend was MILs birthday. She's a bit of a drama queen but she's alright. 

We planned to do a wine an charcuterie party for her. The plan was to hang out at my nice SILs house for the afternoon but leave at about 7 so we wouldn't throw off our kids' routine.

My DH has a shiney new spine for dealing with his family so I wasn't too worried about drama. 

Apparently I really can't predict things well. We walk in the door and who is sitting there but SD14. Neither she, meddlesome SIL or BM felt the need to let DH know she would be there. He asked why didn't you tell me you were going to be here. She shrugged. Then he asked meddlesome SIL why she didn't say anything to him and she said "oh my bad I thought you knew."

Yeah freaking right. DH said they need to tell him but I wish he would have blown up. He couldnt without ruining his mom's party though. BTW this is the 5th birthday in the past 2 months that SD has been around for and she didn't bring a gift to any of them, not even a card. I at least had my toddler scribble a drawing for MIL.

Meddlesome SIL did a wall of photos of MIL and her kids and grandkids. Mercifully there were no pictures of BM hidden in there. There were also none of me (not counting the cropped ones where my arm or hair was at the edge). Neither were there any if nice SILs husband. Meddlesome SIL managed to find wedding pictures with only her siblings, not the spouse they married. Oh and there were TONS of SD pictures. MIL has 4 other grandchildren that barely featured beyond their baby in the hospital photos. There were lots of pictures of meddlesome SIL and SD from when they hang out without DH. 

My DH pointed out the absence of me or nice SIL's husband. Meddlesome SIL didn't really respond. I commented that they were in case of divorce pictures. I have pointed this out to him before but I didn't try to hide what I said at all. My DH was even more annoyed with meddlesome SIL after that because it was evident in collage, I wasn't just being sensitive.

I'm not sure why SD14 was there, she sulked the whole time until it was time for group pictures and she pulled up a chair and parked right in the middle so it looked like she was the guest of honor. She does this with all parties. 

DH asked nice SIL how she was going with her husband since a couple months ago she told him they were having a rough patch. She responded by attacking him and our relationship like we were the ones on the road to divorce. Ok maybe you're not so nice after all! DH and I are doing pretty good right now BTW. I've identified the issue with their marriage, they have a 2 and 4 year old with no routine at all. They're regularly up until 10 or 11pm and both kids sleep in their bed. Our two kids are both asleep in their own rooms by 8 at the very latest and then we get a few hours to connect as adults. If we didn't have that we would be struggling too! 

It was an alright time but DH is probably not going to talk to any of them again until Christmas!