The first incident

After a 2 hour partially snowy drive, we arrived at our weekend destination for Operation 50th Anniversary at a snowy resort up north. We were the first to arrive. My father in law (who is a sweet man), had booked a block of rooms for everyone. We checked in, got a key and some complimentary Starbucks coffee, and settled into our room.(aka unpacked) The sun had just set, and we had (note the word had) a beautiful view out of two picture windows on the 7th floor in the hotel's tower building. I was reading (blogs), Sean was relaxing, the kids were reading. The kids were so excited to see their cousins.

After about 1 hr passes, there was a knock at the door. Then a glimpse of firery red hair, accompanied with a sneering beady eyed surveying face. First thing out of her mouth:

"Oh, so THIS is what you get when you get here first? Our room is soooo much smaller."

Sean: "Mom, this was the room they gave us, we had no idea there were different rooms."

J aka Reds: " No, no, it is fine, I mean it's only our 50th anniversary." Walks out of the room.

Alissa: "Is Grandma taking our room"?

Deb: "Sean, your mom is pissed. Go in her room and talk to her. Just nonchalantly offer to switch rooms, and I'm sure she'll politely decline. After all, we have 4 people, and they only have two. We've already unpacked. It's just polite on our part."

Sean leaves. Comes back in a few minutes with both parents. Sean's Dad, also "J" says "J, they have 4 people in here. It will be a good room for the cousins to play in. We only have 2, and our room is plenty big."

Reds " Yes, but this room has a really nice view. I think we'll take it."

Next 15 minutes:

We're packing, moving across the hall, moving their luggage. Evan is crying, I'm shushing, all while composing this blog post in my head. We get into our new room, and I see a refrigerator in it. I tell Sean "Hey, it's not all bad, we've got a frig."

Sean: "Oh no, she'll take it." Starts to unplug it and carry it.

Knock on door, red hair appears again. "Sean, where's our refrigerator?" "It's ours and we need it."

Me through clenched teeth : "He's lugging it across the hall for you now. He's probably got a hernia too."

Reds: "Good."

And there begins the weekend of narcissism.