sf wrote:

> >That doesn't really work well with a festive occasion. It is a shame to go to all the work to
> >set a nice table and prepare a scrumptious looking roast with a fine presentation and then
> >have to nuke it because on son and his family are always, always, always inexcusably late.
>
> If your son and his family aren't the only guests, why wait?

It's not my son. It was their son, my (late) brother in law and his family.

> You know
> they'll be late, because that's their MO - so don't try to change his
> habits, change your own. QYB and eat. You can have dessert together,
> if you don't insist on serving it as soon as your guests finish the
> main meal.

It's not my call when the mother in law is hosting the family and doing the cooking.

> Personally, we have relatives that are permanently off of and
> invitation list that involves more than appetisers, because they
> always called at the last minute to say someone was ill. It was the
> old "my grandmother just died" ploy and there are only so many times
> you can buy it. We finally made the decision that we didn't want to
> deal with the aggravation of their last minute cancellations and what
> amounted to over buying of food.

That's a good way to deal with it. Now that the brother in law is gone we still have to deal with
his ex wife. We have had a number of pot luck gatherings. She is always late, and usually because
she gets drastically lost every time she comes here. When she finally shows up she has a huge
frozen lasagna. If she would bring something ready to go we could slap it on the table and get
going, but as it stands, when she finally arrives we now have another hour.