Maxwell 44: Must We Permit Mephistopheles and Beelzebub to Perform Financial and Performance Audits

[Bluebirdbluebell]

20 hours ago, Tangy Bee said:

Looks like Jesse spent Thanksgiving with his in-laws. Saw his wife helping prepare dinner with her sisters on instagram. Hope they go for Christmas as well because things could get boring at Steve's house.

They should stay home in their appartment by themselves  and social distance from both sets of parents! There is no reason not to have a quiet, romantic Christmas just the two of them. 

[Loveday]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

Imagine my disappointment when I moved in the general to discover there is no Sleepyside! Other areas mentioned in the book exist such as Sleepy Hollow and White Plains. Such a let down. She was more relatable to me also. 

@PennySycamore I might have to watch my first Hallmark Movie! 

I will pretend I don't know there's no actual Sleepyside.   

I've never watched a Hallmark movie, either, but yeah, now I HAVE to see this one! ?

[clueliss]

It is y’all’s fault I’m sitting here watching Holly & Ivy via Philo (which carries Hallmark channels, TLC and Up)

[MamaJunebug]

28 minutes ago, clueliss said:

It is y’all’s fault I’m sitting here watching Holly & Ivy via Philo (which carries Hallmark channels, TLC and Up)

Watch out, they’re addicting. I try to see how quickly I can spot the Hero And Heroine and the more I do, the more I see the clues: heroes have better hair than faux-heroes; heroines’ makeup and hair is always the best done up among any and all actresses on-screen.

But that’s all I’ll divulge because it’s actually fun to figure them out for oneself!

[fundiewatch]

Gotta say, I’m glad to see Rebecca Eleventy commend on their Thanksgiving post. I have a real soft spot for her. 

[ElizaB]

5 minutes ago, fundiewatch said:

Gotta say, I’m glad to see Rebecca Eleventy commend on their Thanksgiving post. I have a real soft spot for her. 

We haven't heard much from her lately and her blog is not really updated much. I wonder how she is doing and what she is up to. 

[fundiewatch]

She said she is on Facebook, but not much is viewable if you aren’t her friend. Losing her mom was so hard for her. I’m sure that she and her sister are glad to have the noise of the adopted kiddo in the house. A unique situation for sure!

[Dru]

On 11/28/2020 at 5:23 PM, Bluebirdbluebell said:

They should stay home in their appartment by themselves  and social distance from both sets of parents! There is no reason not to have a quiet, romantic Christmas just the two of them. 

100%

I would love to know the reality of each son's family life. Nate and Mel regularly attend events where there is drinking, women working outside of the home, and women (including Mel's mom) wearing pants and playing games.

Also Chels shed light on the fact that they play games (real fun competitive games) regularly.

[allyisyourpally5]

Ooo the games is interesting because there was definitely a Mom corner (which must have been somehow related to the topic of fun) but they discussed children’s toys and the two things I remember was they chose tricycles / bikes that were good for exercise (bikes aren’t for fun, it’s exercise) and games were educational (so for example all about State Capitals Teri said). I wonder what games they have now?

Can you imagine the Maxwells playing Monopoly and getting into debt and having to mortgage their houses and hotels?

Twister? Not very modest....

Operation? Buckeroo?

They wouldn’t do well with anything requiring general knowledge...

I made my parents throw out my game of Pop Up Pirate because it scared me!

 

[jakesykora]

11 hours ago, fundiewatch said:

She said she is on Facebook, but not much is viewable if you aren’t her friend. Losing her mom was so hard for her. I’m sure that she and her sister are glad to have the noise of the adopted kiddo in the house. A unique situation for sure!

Thank you for posting that!

I've also wondered about her recently and wasn't sure if I'd lost her blog in my feed updater or if she was back in a quiet cycle like she has much of the time since her mom died. 

My Christmas tree is mostly 'hidden' Mickey ornaments, and knowing she loves Toy Story, especially, that Disney/Pixer love in common with her has made me think of her more often again when I look at my tree, so I'm glad to know she's at least hanging in there.

[terranova]

Melanie's sister posted quite a few interesting stories on her insta after the election. She's definitely not a Trump supporter.

[CyborgKin]

Anna 3 got captioned by name as "Mom with Anna enjoying time together"

[Bethy]

Things I noticed from this edition of Random Life:

If the Maxes think they're social distancing...they're wrong. Meals with so many people, watching N&M's kids so they could have "dinner out" (the pic of them is outside at least...Mel looks exhausted, and we haven't seen her midsection in months...I'm still suspicious) 

Sarah has pierced ears again!?! (I say "again" because in a picture she posted years ago of her as a very young child, she was wearing pants and had pierced ears. Then they got all plain and seemed to completely eschew makeup/jewelry.) I wonder which SIL's influence we can thank for that?

In the pic of N&M's girls playing cards with Teri and the aunts, Bethany and Tina are just sprawling like little kids, skirts notwithstanding. They've got leggings on so it's fine and everything is covered. They look comfortable, and - dare I say - like normal kids playing a card game! Abby is sitting with her feet demurely folded under her like the aunts. So apparently she has reached "the age" where she has to sit and behave like a grownup, and as close in age as they all are, Betsy and Tina won't be far behind, which makes me sad for all of them. I hope, like @Dru was wondering upthread, that this is just what they do to comply when visiting the mothership, and that at home they're all sprawling around in whatever is comfortable. Can I be bold enough to hope that includes pants, and the skirts are just for show at the mothership? Probably not, since they live so close that the mothership can see every move they make...but I can dream, can't I?

In the pic of Anna and her kids delivering what looks like cookies, she's still wearing a cap. Because of the coats I'm guessing it's because it's cold out, though neither of the girls are wearing socks/tights, so it can't be THAT cold. She finished chemo several months ago so I'm sure she's got some hair regrowth going on. I truly hope she's wearing it for her own comfort and not because she feels it's "immodest" to appear without long, flowing hair. If it's the latter, it's going to be years in a turban waiting for her hair to get back to where it was.

[fundiefan]

God I hate the way Sarah uses words.

Family times. Sunday time. Sister time. Oh, excuse me, special sister time. 

At least Teri & Anna are simply enjoying time together, and not special time, or cooking time, or doing dishes time. 

Steve & Teri are doing a project together. Oh, joy, another project in Maxhell. How about you tell us about the project, Sarah? They're clearly rebuilding a staircase. Why? Which one? What is their plan for it? Was the prior one damaged? Did daddy decide on a new design? 

Quite a game going on here, even Grandma joined in. Sarah constantly refers to things "going on here". Um, use a thesaurus girlie, it will help you be able to actually describe something. 

At least there was no reference to anyone's "crew" this time around. 

I'm sad that she writes books & sells her words to people. She doesn't have a very expansive vocabulary and she is completely incapable of describing anything. 

[louannems]

58 minutes ago, fundiefan said:

God I hate the way Sarah uses words.

Family times. Sunday time. Sister time. Oh, excuse me, special sister time. 

At least Teri & Anna are simply enjoying time together, and not special time, or cooking time, or doing dishes time. 

Steve & Teri are doing a project together. Oh, joy, another project in Maxhell. How about you tell us about the project, Sarah? They're clearly rebuilding a staircase. Why? Which one? What is their plan for it? Was the prior one damaged? Did daddy decide on a new design? 

Quite a game going on here, even Grandma joined in. Sarah constantly refers to things "going on here". Um, use a thesaurus girlie, it will help you be able to actually describe something. 

At least there was no reference to anyone's "crew" this time around. 

I'm sad that she writes books & sells her words to people. She doesn't have a very expansive vocabulary and she is completely incapable of describing anything. 

My "favorite" is the picture of Sarah sitting at a desk with the caption "final book things". Gee, Sarah.  How about you explain to us a small detail of what you are doing?

I do believe that Teri has bought out every color of her three-quarters sleeved, notch necked off the shoulder tee shirts.  Then she totally ruins them by sticking a bulky second tee shirt underneath.

[SPHASH]

Doesn't look like 3nna is pregnant yet but who knows.  I think its safe to assume the kids were campaigning for some right wing anti choice asshole.

[HoneyBunny]

Sarah’s complete abdication of writing anything detailed and interesting for the family blog is very evident when comparing recent posts to those from years ago. We may have snarked on past entries, but they gave us something to snark about. Now, it’s just “y’all’s” and “crews” and “things” and photos. 

[Bluebirdbluebell]

Anna E. and Mary look even more alike.

It annoys me that Sarah points Steve is a great grandpa, meaning wonderful grandpa. First of all, great grandpa means his grandchildren have children, but more annoying is I can see Steve is spending time with his grandkids doing something f*n.  I don't need you to add he's a wonderful grandfather, because he's spending time with them. If I want to, I could make that observation myself or place in the blog comments!

In general, the photos seem more haphazard than usual.

[Bethy]

5 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

In general, the photos seem more haphazard than usual.

I have a couple theories on this:

1. There's a pandemic on
2. The Maxwell universe has been thrown into a tailspin by the marriage of the last son
3. That son and another have formed a seeming alliance and moved an hour from the compound
4. Sarah is still single
5. Sarah may be truly depressed as a result of any combination, or all, of the items listed above and her blogging isn't up to snuff.

I hope that if #5 is accurate, she's not being guilt-tripped with "Why would you be sad? We let you get a dog! We let you pierce your ears!" (All things you might say to someone 1/3 her age if you were trying to guilt them into snapping out of a funk.) But you know anyone who's struggling emotionally (and statistically, a lot of people are this year!) isn't getting anything like real help.

[The Mother Dust]

Apologies if someone already referenced the following, (i'm too lazy to look) but I absolutely LOL'd at this thread title because it reminded me so much of the Good Omens's Heaven and Hell and all the red tape that the angels and demons were always complaining about. ? good job whoever suggested this thread title, good job. 

[allyisyourpally5]

@jakesykora sorry this is totally off topic but I feel like our Christmas Trees would totally be best friends! Mine is also full of hidden Mickeys and is full of Disney decorations (in fact so is my home.....) You must be my new soul mate ????

 

Anyway......

I wonder if the Maxwells have heard of Mickey Mouse?

Oh Sarah. I would actually love to meet her, show her just some simple things in life that she likely has no idea she could do. But I’m sure she would first go and ask Mom and Dad for permission.....have a curfew if she was even allowed.....and likely not take on anything I’ve said because she’s too past the point to accept another reality. She’s approaching 40. It’s ridiculous. 

Then again so is my Mickey tree at age 33.

 

Um I have no idea why my previous post has a mouse emoji - I did not mean to do that!

[Black Aliss]

On 11/30/2020 at 12:02 AM, allyisyourpally5 said:

Ooo the games is interesting because there was definitely a Mom corner (which must have been somehow related to the topic of fun) but they discussed children’s toys and the two things I remember was they chose tricycles / bikes that were good for exercise (bikes aren’t for fun, it’s exercise) and games were educational (so for example all about State Capitals Teri said). I wonder what games they have now?

Can you imagine the Maxwells playing Monopoly and getting into debt and having to mortgage their houses and hotels?

Twister? Not very modest....

Operation? Buckeroo?

They wouldn’t do well with anything requiring general knowledge...

I made my parents throw out my game of Pop Up Pirate because it scared me!

 

They might enjoy Risk if they were playing for Christian world domination.

I have to admit that photo of Ellie staring at the cookie in the hand of one of the grandbabies* and the look on the baby's face is too adorable.

 

*sorry, I'm not going to waste scarce brain cells on figuring out whose sprog that is.

[Bethy]

1 hour ago, Black Aliss said:

I have to admit that photo of Ellie staring at the cookie in the hand of one of the grandbabies* and the look on the baby's face is too adorable.

 

*sorry, I'm not going to waste scarce brain cells on figuring out whose sprog that is.

Pretty sure it's Deborah, N&M's youngest. She'd be the only Maxgrand who would be pudgy toddler-age and also in a skirt. C&A's Elizabeth isn't a pudgy toddler anymore and all the Maxgrands who were born in 2020 were boys.

[deborahlynn1979]

It will never not be annoying to me to see Christopher and Anna's girls out in the snow, a frickin' SKIRT over their snow pants. What is the POINT? It's heavy, wet, and looks like denim. 

[Bethy]

5 hours ago, deborahlynn1979 said:

It will never not be annoying to me to see Christopher and Anna's girls out in the snow, a frickin' SKIRT over their snow pants. What is the POINT? It's heavy, wet, and looks like denim. 

W discussed this at length last year. All about how not only does it look ridiculous and potentially unsafe, but also hampers the girls' freedom of movement and ability to participate in activities. But these are undoubtedly people who believe that if an activity can't be done modestly in a dress, then girls have no business doing them, so...