Relatives

When I was married to my first husband, one of his family members belonged to a religion that didn't celebrate Christmas.

To ensure their children were not deprived at Christmas, every year they used to come to me for Christmas lunch, I don't believe this was anything to do with religion I think this was just a way for her to get out of the cost and effort of cooking Christmas lunch. She insisted that she was only prepared to serve egg and chips that day, where as I served the full production.

This meant I was cooking for eleven instead of six, and then my in-laws invited themselves so I was now cooking for 13. I'm not complaining, I loved it, though I would have preferred it if anyone had helped with the clearing up afterwards.

Nobody contributed towards the cost of this lunch though they sometimes bought a tin of biscuits or sweets with them. My husband was extremely tight fisted with money but not when it came to his family. I took full advantage of this and made sure he paid for everything and more!

At his request I served turkey, pork, beef and ham at this lunch, I ordered enough meat to feed us through to Easter so my food bill after Christmas was much reduced for a few months.

This went on until the other family's children left home whereupon they decided they could afford steak for Christmas lunch so my services were no longer needed.