Happy Holidays?

Another holiday season is upon us and while some are dreaming of turkey, gifts under the Christmas tree and made-for-TV movies, I'm firmly entrenched in seasonal family drama.

The latest tiff comes care of... you guessed it, my sister-in-law.

Lets start from the beginning, shall we? My mother-in-law hosted her annual un-Thanksgiving this past weekend. We went, with the expectation that we'd be discussing Christmas arrangements. As expected, my mother-in-law wants to include the kids of her new husband and their kids in the gift-giving extravaganza.

So, that makes a grand total of 11 adults and 8 kids - 19 people total. Fortunately, the new adult additions are just as hard-up for money as we are they quickly figured out that 19 people x $10 each = $190. My brother-in-law's psycho wife was saying we should spend "at least" $20 on each kid. I suppose that's a great thought when you have the most kids.

Anyway, we took a "majority rules" approach and decided on a Yankee swap for the adults and a name-draw for the kids. My mother-in-law and her husband opted out, saying they want to buy for everyone, so in turn everyone will buy for them. Her husband's daughter (a single, childless woman) announced that she would like to just buy gifts for her own niece and nephew, which is totally understandable. That means 8 adults and 8 kids would be participating, so each adult would buy for 1 kid.

So at least the list has been dwindled from us bringing 14 gifts to just bringing 4 gifts. Two are for the yankee swap and have a cap of $15 and 2 are for kids and also have a cap of $15. We should be able to get out for under $60. I'm actually grabbing items from my gift-closet for the adult Yankee swap, bringing the total down to $30 for that portion of the family.

My sister-in-law left furious because they had already bought gifts for the kids and apparently can't return them. They want everyone to buy for their kids too. After they left, the new portion of the family asked what my sister-in-law's problem was. I laughed. I didn't know where to begin!

Hopefully Christmas is less dramatic than it's shaping up to be so far!