Lhe time to find a date that suits everyone, with divorces and blended and then broken families, the season of family celebrations now runs over a period almost as long as that of the wishes of companies and the galettes des rois of intermunicipalities. But while the instructions for physical distancing forbade for two years to brag too much about the number of people gathered around his table, the end of the confinements brought back to the taste of the day a disappeared sport: the contest of the grandmother which will bring together the more children and grandchildren at Christmas. You might think that successful parties are measured by the freshness of the oysters and the discussions, but the real criterion of perfection for the latter is actually to be able to say in the days that follow: “We were all there. »
How do we recognize them?
Grandmothers “we were all there” quickly abandoned the idea of the New Year’s Eve on December 24: among their children, at least one is separated, which increases the risk of absence and increases the difficulty of finding the perfect date. But they target the following days or weekends in January for the galette des rois. To fix the day, these ecumenical grannies ask their children who have most recently divorced for their availability. If the family reunion is not held at their home, they come with their decorations and their Christmas wreath. After saying: “We were all there” they add: « A part… » and some first names. They give the excuses of absentees (on duty at the hospital, on a mission on an oil rig… the other alibis do not count). They keep accounts with competing in-laws, find them unfair advantages (“a chalet in the mountains, you can’t compete”). If they still have missing guests at their staggered Christmas, they explain that the other grandmothers are in less good health than them and deserved the presence of the children more. They do not want to know that their grandchildren, counting the invitation to the parents of their mother’s new boyfriend, are sometimes on their seventh Christmas Eve in ten days. They are the last on their street to abandon their tree on the sidewalk – who knows, an unexpected last Christmas could have arisen at any time.
how they talk
“It was with us this year and there were about twenty of us. » “All that was missing…” “Brigitte was lucky, all her children were there. » “If we do this in May, at least we can be outside. » “Next year it will be with us. » « There were only five of us but it was very good all the same. » “When you have four children and they have love affairs…” “I did open bar on Saturday and Sunday. »
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