1/2 of my family has gone home today...

My 2 cousins and my mom are still here. Today has been uncharacteristically calm and quiet. DH even said SD has been acting okay today...I asked him if he knew why, and he said he thought his talking was getting through to her...I told him that I didn't think so...The reason she's been remotely sane today is because DH has had her yoked up all day. She's been in the bonus room with him ALL DAY...She hasn't interacted with anybody. My cousins avoid her 100%, so whenever she did come out of the bonus room, they literally scooped DS up and left...

DH said, "Wow...I didn't hook all of that up, but you're right..."

Second observation. Yesterday MIL came over, and DH was telling her how awful SD had been acting...I didn't notice their conversation, but DH was telling me about it today. He said when he was telling her, MIL had the nerve to pat his shoulder and tell him to, "Calm down", which pissed DH off even more...He said, "It's obvious this old bird has NO clue about raising kids...She's pissed me off, and I'm disappointed as hell at her response..." He said it was like she didn't want him to talk about her behavior either in front of SD or in front of my family...

Final observation. SIL didn't send the kids anything for Christmas. After her tirade about me on FB about how I treat SD so differently than DS, and all her talk about how close she is to SD, she didn't even call her for Christmas...No gift...No call...

Wait...One more observation. DH said that it's a shame that SD only comes over 6 days a month. He said he doesn't have the influence over her like he'd like...He says she's so much like her mother. Mean, bossy, antagonistic, etc. and he hates it. He even admitted that he was ready for her to go back home because he feels like he can't influence her. She's been talking back, throwing fits, attention whoring, etc...And he's been doing a lot to try to give her attention, spend time with her, etc...She's treated my family awful, and NOW he finally understands and even agrees that we can't take her to FL when we visit my sister...I've always been against it, and he felt bad and that he wants to take her on vacation with us...I flat out said hell no, as I knew how she'd act...He's TRULY seeing it now, and he knows she'd ruin the whole trip...SO the last time we went on a trip together was in 2008 because DH didn't want to leave SD...I've gone on tons of trips without him as I'm not letting SD's behavior and DH's guilt hold me prisoner...But now he gets it...So we're going to accept my sister's invite to visit them next Christmas...