The Chateau Diaries #202 The Fleuries next Christmas grift candle may smell of greed, sweat & regret

[C'est moi]

I had to do early Christmas all day and evening yesterday with my narc mom, narc sister, my brother and their kids. Frankly, I would rather celebrate Çhristmas alone than with my somewhat feral relatives. It is nice to get it out of the way so you can enjoy Christmas Day without dealing with them.

It is difficult to find some presents for family members. I decided to go Lego this year with a few presents. Here are some of the presents I gave to my sister, sister in law, nieces, and narc mom.:

A Lego orchid and a Lego bonsai tree ( which they could take to their office for workspace or just display at home on a shelf, etc. It gave them a shared activity to do to fill the long day yesterday and keep attention focused on assembling the Lego project instead of pointed comments, conversations, etc.


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and

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I got this Boba Fett Lego set for my 15 year old nephew:
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We still do Lego. And puzzles. Puzzles are great, those 3D statue or car ones. Or the escape room ones that are a puzzle and a game.

 

[Lochness Monster]

Holy photoshop!! Looks like Phi Phi used the industrial holiday version of the LieLande fantasy filter on F4F in the video caption. She almost looks subhuman, she is so smoothed out and her eye color so intensified. However, the efforts are somewhat wasted because even with all of PhiPhi’s magical photoshopping skills, he cannot make her look less like her brother, the Tartan Terror. All I can see is Gerry in a blue coat and wig when I see F4F. Jarvis genes run deep.

She also looks like Sadie! Sooo ridiculous.

 

[Yebo]

i asked my father once when i was a kid...why do all the basement windows have iron bars?? he replied..well... wel into the 1900s people had to make sure their house was attackproof...there were gangs all around the countryside to attack you..The big house has iron bars on the basement levelwindows...the rest has outside shutters ..with a big iron strip who you can lock on the inside...the doors are solid oak with metal and a lott of locks on it...even the cottages and farmhouses on the estate have these kind of protection..and they all had guns and other things to get rid of people who wanted to rob them..in the old days you had to protect yourself...

Fanny has vicious sheep to protect her.

When Stephanie Jarvis mentioned the "cabbage" plates, I was expecting to see the original, retro, vintage "green" plates too. Which, I personally remember seeing in my relatives' china cabinets in my youth. Not those modern white ones?

Beswick used to make them I think.

 

[billybudd]

Hear hear ….

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[MRShavershamsdress]

Even Hyacinth had slightly better taste!

How odd that comment shows as mine in the quote but it’s actually from @Lady Lindy! Perhaps Tattle Life’s been into the Christmas wine early?!?

Words fail me to describe what I just watched...

Tacky?
Ghastly?
Gaudy?
Claustrophobic?
Appalling?
Tragic?
Migraine inducing?

And the whole thing was just to advertise AnnMarie's skillset as a Jack of all trades. I'm sure he will also be charging her far less that any other contractor... But fanny dear... you get what you pay for!

The phrase “in need of a nice cleansing fire” springs to mind!

 

[vitanova]

Seemed like lots of people missing from dinner, Mummy and Percy, Amorie, Phi phis parents.... Unless this dinner timeline is skewed... And doesn't Stuart have dogs??? But she brought her cat??? This weekend will be interesting. And if Snorts ever laid a hand on my personal stuff. He would loose it. I think the Mummy has done lost her mind or lost interest, this may well be the last time they visit. And how are they heating that huge room? Did I miss that?

dog is amaury's.

 

[HalcyonOrganic]

Hmmm, Sandi Carpenter huh?!? Looks like Anne-Marie has joined the faux commenting mafia.

sadly not, the account was created in 2014

 

[Freesia54]

I love the movie White Christmas! I watch it every year, just last week as a matter of fact. I also watched Holiday Inn, not as good IMHO. Interesting that the song White Christmas was made for Holiday Inn (1942) not White Christmas (1954). Bing Crosby sung it both times. I must say his voice was better in 1942. I always get teary eyed at the end of White Christmas when all the soldiers sing for their general. I'm of the generation which had our fathers and uncles serve in WW2 so it's always special for me.

I heard he wasn't a very nice man in real life...a bit of a bully.

 

[Iolair]

This is not derailment... Fanny was gifted one!!!!
I have just gone down the Farwa coat rabbit hole! Any ideas where to buy? One of the coats I spotted looked like Kashmiri embroidery, maybe I will stick to Kashmiri stoles/wraps!

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Try the above link. Hope you find one you like.

 

[Tellingthetruth123]

Handwritten thank you notes are de rigueur no matter how you received the gift. It shows deliberate intention and effort. Texting, calling or emailing, in my book, are not acceptable, they are the lazy way out. Writing a note means that you either need to buy or make a card, think about what you are going to say, maybe even write a draft, use your best handwriting, get a stamp and mail or deliver it. Receiving a thank you card is a very nice gesture. Once a colleague of mine, who should have known better, bought us all donuts and put them in the staff room as a group thank you for putting on her bridal shower and buying gifts. I was not impressed. Others in her age group started doing the same thing explaining that it was so much easier than writing individual thank you notes! And these were teachers who were always going on and on about their students bad manners. I don't even like donuts.

How awful for you. She sounds evil.

 

[Margo Polo]

• Alexander is an oddball. We may never know why he has been given the bum's rush twice. He may have a dirty little secret as far as we know. The excuse to leave Begmania was the cold. Well if that's true then why go The Castle which is also cold and has been well documented as such? His excuse for leaving The Castle is there's no room. Well that doesn't wash, there's plenty of rooms. Something's up with that kiddo.
• Uncle Steve is indeed a creepy one. I hate to think what he may be involved in. At the least, I hope it's adults and not minors.
• Auntie uses food and hoarding to fill her life and distract from whatever unsavory business her husband is up to. She's a stroke or heart attack waiting to happen.
• DTM has gone the route of mountain man building a log cabin in the woods. Yeah, right! Not such an easy task. It takes a lot of skill which he doesn't have. Maybe he should just get a yurt with a log burner.
• I can't wait for the first Christmas tree in The Castle to be knocked over either by Auntie swinging that bounty of a butt or some drunk.
• I hope we see Isabelle making lots of sour faces at all the antics and scolding her sister for eating too much.
• I also can't wait to see what everyone is going to wear for the big day! Lots of cleavage for Fanny and tight pants for Phyllis. Natti will look like a granny. AnneMarie will probably wear a muscle shirt and talk with his mouth full while drinking beer out of a bottle. Uncle steve will show up in red pants and a light up bowtie. Auntie will wear something floaty so she can eat as much as she wants without the waistband getting tight. We'll not see Phyllis's parents probably. Potts will wear his shit eating grin as usual. Natti's parents and granny will probably look normal or wear the jersey of the Argentine soccer team.
• Like our esteemed Comte has stated, I do hope the fuse box blows! Toilets back up, car batteries go dead, flat tires, water pipes burst.

Uncle Stephen reminds me of Jessica Simpsons Dad, and we all know how creepy he is… turned out he liked younger men. ( plus he has the same sense of style of clothing )

 

[UvulaDonor]

There must be something odd about Amaury -

I think people should write thank you notes. Just my opinion. If someone took the time to purchase something for you, wrap it, and possibly even mail it, well, it’s just good manners to acknowledge it with a thank you note. Unless it was an email gift certificate or something like that, then an email thank you is ok. My daughter is helping my five-year-old granddaughter write out thank you notes to everyone who came to her birthday party. My son and his wife of 1 1/2 years have yet to get thank you notes sent out from their wedding, which during Covid was very small. Love them, but not proud of that... I don’t blame myself—he was taught.

I'm a very polite, well-mannered 55 year old but I would never sent thank you notes - but I certainly don't expect them either. My friends and family know I love them and appreciate them.

 

[vitanova]

Yes, she does. But otherwise, same disastrous conditions: nowhere she can call "home" in Oslo, no friends that we know of, a new city, again! But at least she is in a familiar country.

but she does live with a friend for now.

 

[Summerbaby]

Someone has drowned in a bathtub filled with Bollinger... But the plot thickens, as the beam gave way and the bathtub fell into the grand salon under so much weight. Who dunnit? (Oh wait, the Shitoo "dunnit" as the beams were already shyte throughout.) But WHO is the bathtub?!?
[/QUOTE

Someone has drowned in a bathtub filled with Bollinger... But the plot thickens, as the beam gave way and the bathtub fell into the grand salon under so much weight. Who dunnit? (Oh wait, the Shitoo "dunnit" as the beams were already shyte throughout.) But WHO is the bathtub?!?

Obviously, we are all 100% hoping that it is Snorts. Or, maybe, the Lady of the Manor, Stephanie Jarvis - fingers crossed for either!

 

[OhIDontKnow...]

Spot on! Isabelle Jarvis has never been very fond of her sister, whose size makes it clear that she enjoys way life more than she will ever be able to. In Isabelle's playbook that's a huge minus as is, but the enthusiasm her daughter has taken over those habits with truly disgust her. Up until very recently it was unsure if Isabelle and Percy would join the family at all, as Isabelle tried to use Percy's frail constitution as an excuse to stay in England. Percy however likes to be love bombed by his daughter in law and loves the splurging as it frees him from the prison regime Isabel keeps him under normally. I never thought I'd say this but this family actually knows a worse actor than Philip Janssen and they would be wise to keep her role a cameo appearance, or she will give away the dirty secrets: she's that bad an actress.

Who else is there? FRK?

 

[TorontoGWM]

Where in the hell did Shrek Jr. (the walking heart attack waiting to happen) come from? Does he not have a job?

Does anyone else like to imagine him squashing Fill-Up? Flat Fill-Up.

 

[Lochness Monster]

Is this Phi Phis Daddy? They were quick and keen to cut him out of the vlog? He is wearing a cap in his head? And glasses.

 

[MRShavershamsdress]

I think I remember hearing that big Andrew was Ryan’s cousin and he bought himself a castle not too far away from Lalande. Have we ever seen it? Is he trying to set himself up for his own YouTube channel?

Ryan as in deadly dull yokel Ryan from Begmania?!? Just what we need!🫤

 

[Sparrowsfart]

but she does live with a friend for now.

In the Wiki, pink button top of the page.

EDIT Opps was for @Madametuna

After months of reading I FINALLY know what RFK means!! I figured it meant something about Marie, but I couldn't figure out what it spelled out! Thank you!
If there's an abbreviation index somewhere, or if any of you can share what the other abbreviations stand for, let me know!

Pink button top of the page "Wiki"

 

[MsMuir]

Has anyone watched The Righteous Gemstones?
Not sure why but I always think of Fanny & her motley crew of con artist when I watch