Bill, good luck with the snow! It wasn't bad here, only about 4 inches or so. We took the girls outside long enough to put their hands in the snow and watch them make funny faces.
Dagmar, glad the dinner party went well! I take it your DH got his act together to make your dips?
I am again annoyed at my MIL. Not sure how much if it is the usual annoyances vs. how much is impending TOM (which came back with a vengeance last month, making me realize how nice it was to not have for over a year). I asked my DH to talk with her about the language she uses to describe her visits with the girls, which makes me feel like she is constantly judging me. She often says things like, "Will Jessica allow us to see the girls this weekend?" and "Thank you for letting us come see them." Like as if I'm prohibiting her from seeing them enough. She's here three days a week! That's far more than enough in my book. Then she asked DH if they should come over on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. He said Friday or Sunday would be fine. Then she replied back and said, "Okay, we'll see you Friday AND Sunday."
Other minor annoyances are things like how she feels like she has to get me a gift if she's getting other people gifts, even though she is clueless about what I like/want, so when they came over with Hanukkah presents for the girls and DH she brought me two pairs of socks. Which is fine, except that they're size large and I'm only 5'4" with proportionally small feet, so I'm pretty sure that she had bought them for herself and just had them laying around (she is 5'10"). Also we have to pretty much boot them out the door whenever they come over. You would think the fact that we're getting the girls ready for their nap would be a hint if they've already been at our house for two hours, but no, I had to tell them, "Why don't you get your stuff together, we have to put the girls down now." Then also she insists on buying random used equipment from garage sales and jerryrigging it back together to make it functional, which is totally unsafe for babies and kind of ridiculous because she has a lot of cash to spare so there's no reason for her to buy cheap old things. To combat this I put together an amazon wish list with equipment we actually need and want and said, "If you want to buy stuff for the girls, please buy something from this list and do not buy used due to safety concerns." (Regarding the cash to spare, this is a woman who needed a new stove so went to the store and said, "What's the most expensive stove you sell?" Not even joking, that's exactly what she did.)
Sigh. I know that they want to see their grandkids, but I really need them to be out of my hair during the few hours a week I get to be home with my babies. I like my in-laws but I liked them a lot better when I saw them once or twice a month. I don't even like seeing my OWN parents multiple times a week. I certainly never saw my grandparents more than once a week when I was a kid, if even that often.
Sorry for the ranting! I am just looking forward to my holiday vacation. I'm taking two weeks off work so I can hang around at home and my mom will be in town too, plus my sister and SIL are coming into town for a couple days.