So glad it's almost over

I just spent the last 48 hours in suburban Hell with my husband's family (2 sisters, their spouses, his parents and his sisters' teenage kids) who never leave the house.
For some, lounging around eating homemade fudge in your PJ's for an entire weekend must be pure bliss. For me, it's torture.
I spend most of my time trying not to eat the fudge, micromanaging our kids and finding ANY excuse to run an errand.
Out here, a trip to Borders Books is a Grand Outing.

Me:
"Please don't give M Cheezdoodles before she's had lunch"
"No, I don't think C will be able to sleep if the boys are playing GuitarHero at full volume in the room while he's trying to nap"
"Please don't give the baby (choose one: bacon/peanut butter/ honey/ luncheon meat/ small objects/ fudge)"
"It's not OK for M to sit in the bathroom and consume an entire bag of BBQ flavored chips"
"Please pause the scary movie so that I can bring M upstairs so that she won't watch it" (This made me the bad guy. No one else seemed to care that my 4 y/o was shuddering under her blanket trying to hide from the live action not appropriate for children under 12 movie remake of "The Grinch")
"Ah...No Thanks" (when offered more fudge, even though I've been secretly sneaking it all day. All in all I've probably consumed over 1200 extra calories in fudge alone this trip...)
And on and on...

By the last 10 hours, I had been broken. I simply threw my hands in the air and said "whatever". Basically, I relinquished control. I decided to trust these people. Even though their kids have no discernible bedtimes. Even though they allow them to eat junk food any time, anywhere. Even though TV was in both kids' bedroom with no limits on what or when the watching occurred. I caved. The whole thing (trying to set some limits) became just too exhausting and it was just too hard to wage this battle alone. Besides, these are nice people deep down. They have always been very kind and welcoming to me and they are only looking for a chance to spoil our kids because they adore them so much. I'm sure a couple days of junk food and TV binging followed by obscenely large over-the-top presents won't cause any permanent damage, but MAN...I sure was relieved to cross that Bay Bridge again.... there's nothing like being away from home to make you truly appreciate what you have.

Happy Holidays everyone.