I’ve read on Pink Poppy’s and Montannie’s blogs that they have wonderful Mother-in-laws. I am so happy for them and years ago started a mental list of what "not" to do to my future DIL’s if and when my sons marry. My own mother is a wonderful mother and MIL as both of my SIL’s just love her. My hubby’s mother on the other hand is a very different person. I’m not saying that I don’t get along with her, it’s just that she is strange.

Case in point – for Christmas this year she gave me one of these.  This really isn’t a problem, except that I already own one of these and she knows it as she had admired mine so much that we gave her one for Christmas last year. So I just thought that I would keep it for when mine breaks as I have had mine for several years now and use it almost weekly. Then I notice it, the receipt taped to the box, so I think even better, I can discreetly take it back and get something else. About this time MIL proceeds to tell me and the rest of the family (all 23 of them) that this is the same one we gave her last year and as she didn’t use it she thought that she would just give it back to me as she knew that I liked it because I already had one. Did I mention that this was the only thing I got from her. Now don’t get me wrong, Christmas for me is not about getting presents, it’s all about giving them.

This whole scenario reminded me of KJ’s blog on re-gifting and I thought that this must be the ultimate re-gift situation. My sister started laughing hysterically and got up and left the room, the whole time with her hand covering her mouth and her finger pointed at me and my mom is shaking her head no and mouthing "be nice" to me. So I did the only thing I could – I went back to the bedroom, re-wrapped the hand blender, stuck a tag with my sister’s name on it and put it under the tree. At our house, we pass out the gift’s one at a time and wait until that person opens it before we hand out the next gift, so I had a chance to do this without anyone noticing it, except hubby who followed me back to the bedroom because he thought I was upset and going to cry. Well, when my sister opened this gift, she started laughing again and had tears running down her face which made me and hubby laugh as we were the only ones in on this little joke. The thing is sis is just starting to stock her kitchen and I had already gotten her several kitchen necessities which were under the tree so everyone else just thought that this present fit in with everything else I had gotten her and MIL was playing with the baby so she didn’t notice.

Last year for Christmas she gave me a Christmas themed coffee mug (just one) and two small votive candles. Not scented or even in a pretty container, they were votive candles, the kind that are in the little metal containers that you drop down into your pretty containers. This was after hubby and I had cleaned out the 40 or so coffee mugs we had accumulated in the cabinet and either took them down to the farm, or threw them out. She had gone to the farm with us and asked why we brought so many mugs, so we told her that we cleaned out the cupboard and only left 4 everyday ones as we have 2 sets of (12 each) really nice matching coffee cups with saucers to use when we entertain. The ones we clean out were the junk ones that you get from work or at the health fairs, etc. She didn’t even wrap it and the candles were dropped down inside the mug. When we were opening presents, she just pulled it out of her purse and said "Here is your present from me – I thought you might need some more coffee mugs since you had gotten rid of all of yours". Hubby’s father was so embarrassed that he handed me a $100 when he realized what she had given me.

I’m really not offended with this as I am very spoiled and get most everything I want – if you don’t believe me, just ask hubby. But I have to wonder, why bother, why doesn’t she just not get me anything. I have asked hubby if he thinks she is in the early stages of dementia, but he insists that she has always been this way. Kind of makes you wonder what he got for Christmas when he was a little boy – legg’s pantyhose eggs or a half eaten box of valentines candy?

Oh, and by the way, when we were through opening all the presents, she poked around under the tree and said in a very loud voice, "where is my gift from little princess?" She wanted a gift from her 6 month old granddaughter. Hubby tried to explain to her that she would get a gift from her granddaughter when her granddaughter was old enough to understand gift giving and help pick it out. Guess I need to make sure princess gives her grandmother something that she would like to receive back for Christmas the next year – he, he.