I used to live Jani Move to Austin with that child! You see so much stuff now-a-days that you get paranoid. You JUST know they don't have street smarts and that someone will get them. Quit worrying, she'll be fine. My grandfather always told me to carry a dime in my shoe and that I could call him anytime, anywhere no matter what. I never called him but it made me feel safe knowing that no matter what my grandpa would ride to my rescue! I always have too much on my plate, that is where having ADD comes in handy, very handy. It rained Sunday & knocked out the power so I finished the store room, the kitchen, bath & most of the LR, doesn't even look like our house! The brisket sale is over, ate one, froze one. We're meeting before the next Krewe meeting to talk about what to do with the float. The plants are all still sitting around but at least they are watered now LOL! My shingles is better, thank heavens for famvir, my neck is sore but I can move today. AND it's raining again, thanks to everyone that sent rain our way. Tally HO!

I decided to chime in on this old thread as I have now had my Aga for ten years. It was an (expensive) leap when we were planning our house and my husband was skeptical. When it was installed in our open kitchen on concrete floors he said it looked like an expensive car parked there. That was then. Now we cannot imagine our kitchen life without it. And the kitchen IS the heart of the home. Keep in mind a few things: we live in the Pacific Northwest where it is cool and rainy about 9 months of the year. In the summer though it gets very hot (90 degrees) off and on. If it is gong to stay that hot for a week or more, we turn it off. And spend the next week complaining about life without it! Once you turn it back on it takes overnight to come back to heat. Our AGA is electric, a decision we made carefully. Again, we live in the PNW where electricity is relatively cheap, but more importantly, we decided to use energy we had a hope of generating ourselves. We will never be able to generate propane. And while I have cooked on a wood stove for years, I wouldn't really recommend it if you have other choices. We've never had it serviced ( we live quite a ways out in the country), but we have had the electrical element fixed twice (in 10 years). Why do we love it? It makes great toast. We cook pancakes for the grandchildren directly on the simmer plate; the ovens are wonderful and no waiting for preheating nor turning it down when going from 450 to 350 for a recipe; we also drape ourselves over it in the morning and at night and whenever we come in from gardening in the cold and wet; dogs love to be near it; our big open kitchen/living/dining room is not adequately heated by the radiant floor heat (ground source heat pump) at least not at the levels we are willing to turn it up to, and the Aga provides gentle heat to that end of the room; I can heat my slippers in the 150 oven; we also "iron" our table napkins and anything else you want ironed by folding them while slightly damp and letting them sit on the warming plate for a while, flipping them once and:presto, flat and ironed table linens. I have a lot of experience cooking with gas, propane and induction. Induction would be my (non-Aga) choice by far, but we would not really like to contemplate our kitchen life without the red classic four door beast.

Thank you, scissors, for posting this. My in-laws are very nice people, but were very demanding about Christmas. My friends who haven't been through it often don't really understand the level of intensity people like that feel about being at all their family Christmas functions. Those posters who say things like "I seriously doubt that they realize the pressure and inconvenience it creates" - yes, yes they DO understand the pressure and inconvenience it creates. It's not that they don't understand and it's not that they don't care, but it is bone-deep critical to them that you be there no matter what the cost. Those posters who say blame it on the baby, or "they can't be mad at a baby" - that doesn't work either. They don't care if it doesn't suit the baby's schedule, or if the baby has a routine and doesn't respond well to changes, or anything like that. As far as they are concerned, what the baby wants is completely, totally immaterial. As far as they are concerned, it's a baby. The baby will get over it. It doesn't matter if the baby is cranky, tired, has been dragged all around the state in the past two days in the name of Christmas, the baby and the parents can/should handle it. The ONLY acceptable reason for the baby not to come is if the baby is sick. Not just a cold or the sniffles, but running a fever, etc. Again, it's not that they don't understand and it's not that they don't care. They do. But it is unthinkable that they don't have all their family at their Christmas functions. NO other holiday will substitute. Not a family reunion in the summer, not Thanksgiving, nothing but Christmas. I don't understand it, I'll never understand it. I tried to understand it, and after all these years I'm glad I don't understand it. My son is 24 years old and for the first time in his life we are going to have all of Christmas Day at home. He told me just the other day that he is "totally pumped" about the awesome Christmas Day we can have at home. Knowing my son, I thought "Oh my goodness. What on earth are we in for?!!! Are we driving to some spectacular mountain biking spot, driving for 6 hours to some place where we can snow tube?!!!!" Nope, what he wants is to stay in pajamas, cook a big breakfast, play games and cards and watch movies like "What a Wonderful Life". He's never had that. How did I handle demanding relatives at Christmas? When my husband asked me to marry him, I kid you not I told him that I would like to marry him, but we had to agree that we wouldn't go to all 4 separate family Christmas celebrations his family held for the rest of my life - no way was I dragging my kids to all that. If my family had had the same attitude as my husband's family, we would have had 8, yes 8 separate family events complete with travel, large meal and gift exchange. Ahhhhh, thanks for letting me vent!!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you that there is someone else somewhere who understands. Hugs across the internet, scissors!!!!

My DIL made it abundantly clear that we were not welcome in their VERY large home (6400 sq feet). My son was determined that his family ALWAYS be welcome in their home. He rarely fell on his sword over things, but this was one. We offered to stay elsewhere but he was adamant. How was this ultimately resolved? She filed for divorce - decided that it was not just his family she didn't like - didn't like him either. She was VERY high maintenance, but our hearts were broken for our son as he would have put up with her in order to raise his children with him in the home. He does an amazing job staying very close to his children, for which I am grateful for both. Families are complicated. SO many hidden issues. And sometimes, it just doesn't work.