Thanksgiving away was fine.  We couldn’t remember if Dave had met the family whose house we were eating at, but when the door opened and their daughter opened her mouth, we both instantly remembered: dinner, three years ago, at the Bag. We had the bacon & caramelized onion pizza.  She hasn’t changed much. Dinner was fine, though, and we went back to my parents place and watched Uncle Buck, a VHS that one of their renters had left behind. Damn, that’s a good movie.

This morning we had breakfast and wandered around the Village with my folks as they got their season passes and caught up with other Mountain-ers that they hadn’t seen since last season.  It’s so cute, my dad in his green wool hunting pants and LLBean parka, and my mom putting on makeup for her season pass. Hee. Also cute was the story on "thanksgiving babies" that was on the news, and my dad saying "awwww, they’re so cute!"  I couldn’t even bear to look at the screen for fear that my WANTING would cause me to explode.  (No bleeding yet, but I did get both a note with babydust AND a leftover HPT in the mail today, from two different people in two different states. Heh.)

We headed back after noon, and I napped in the car, and when we got home I checked my email to find out who we had been ‘assigned’ to for the InLaw Christmas.

Now, every other year has been a big ol’ gift card exchange, basically, and everyone has been expected to buy for everyone else. That’s a lotta people. ANd I think it’s bullshit.  Last year, we gave every family a framed family portrait from our wedding and a loaf of homemade bread.  The year before I made those heatable rice packs and soap for everyone. Or maybe that was ’01. I forget.  Anyway, it’s always bugged me because gift exchanging in my family was only done within the immediate family. Even my grandparents only ever sent a check, which bought savings bonds, which bought things like college tuition and our washer/dryer when they were cashed in.  The theory behind the deal was that each family took care of themselves, and it didn’t mean we loved each other less — we just used our resources more locally.  Granted, my family members were all over the country, and not just within city limits, but still. (And we still see MY long-distance relatives more than my in-town inlaws, but I digress.)  My ILs don’t even put much THOUGHT into their gifts, everyone prefers gift cards, so it ends up being a big ol’ gift card exchange, which is just pointless.  Especially when there’s NO THOUGHT.  Dave and I joked to each other about starting a "twenty dollar bill swap" to just cut it back to it’s essence; we’d end in the same place we started off, but something was exchanged as a token ‘gift.’ 

When i was at the party last weekend, I mentioned to SIL that we couldn’t afford to buy for everyone, so please don’t buy for us, etc etc.  I even mentioned how my family did it, and she agreed that somehting should change, especially since the other SILs family has exploded over the last year.  She talked about drawing names, and I said "well, whatever" and left it at that.  A few days later, I got an email saying they would draw names at Thanksgiving, and I wrote back and suggested they draw along gender lines, as it would make the buying easier.  She agreed to that too.  When we got home today, I checked my email and found our names.

Dave got our BIL, the one person in the family he wouldn’t mind buying for. (Our BIL is a fantastic guy. He’s a by-marriage IL, but he helped us move, he helped me with my car one day purely by chance, he would do anything for you and is a hard-working honest to god good guy. We love him most.)  Me? Who got the whole "stop the christmas insanity!" ball rolling? I got ANGIE. My nephew’s Like-A-Wife, named so because that’s what my SIL called her when I had to tell her that she was not invited to our wedding, so why did you RSVP for a steak dinner for her?  Of everyone in our family, she is the one I least care for, simply because I do not KNOW HER.  I don’t even know — I swear to god — her last name.  What I do know drives me nuts, she’s the one who is 37 weeks pregnant with number 2, she’s the one who lives in city housing and makes fun of others for not having DIGITAL CABLE. GREAT.

I called my SIL and asked what the limit was for spending.  "Oh, well, it depends on who you’re buying for, I guess. Like, if I had my sister I’d probably spend more, but if I had Angie, not much, because I don’t really know her." 

"Yeah, and that’s who I have."

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that.  But GoodNiece has your name!"

So, my IL puppeteering has me in quite a funny position.  Dave has an easy one to buy for, and it’s not an obligatory purchase.  We totally dig BIL.  I am receiving from the one person in my ILs that would know what I’d like.  I’m pretty safe from guardian angel pins and teacher-themed cardigans.  But me? The center of the Gendered Name Drawing Gift Reform Act of ’04? Get the single most dreaded person to buy FOR.  Maybe if someone who KNEW her got her name, they wouldn’t be freaking out, but still.

So, I called Amy.  Angie will be 1+ weeks postpartum (assuming she goes full term) and I wanted to get a gift.  I am also vehemently anti-giftcard with the ILs, just because they ALWAYS give and get giftcards, and I like to THINK about gifts.  Amy gave me some ideas, and I ended up putting together a bag of  spa-like goodies.  Not bath salts, because who has time for a bath when you have a 3 year old and a newborn, but good body lotion, a set of massager things for the shower, a facial mask, a body puff, etc.  The only pre-packaged thing I got was the lotion set, an Almay (hypoallergenic! I wanted some for myself since I am so allergenic I can never have this shit) set of BOTH "relax" and "rejuvenate."  I couldn’t decide what would be better for postpartum, so the mix was a good idea.

I also got some other stuff, and if you’re a sneaky-family-member reader (um, Dave, my parents, etc) then don’t click the link.

For my mom I picked up Shrek2, because she loves Shrek, and for Dave I picked up three DVD packages: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol1, (we have Vol2), Arrested Development’s 1st season, and Home Movies 1st season.  We’ve never seen Home Movies, but it looked good, and I think I’d heard it was good on the Digs boards.  Since we don’t have digital cable, we’ve been watching more DVD tv shows lately. Home Movies looked like a good one.  Anyone have any input on that? (especially when you know that we love ATHF, Invader Zim, Arrested Development, irreverent comedy in general, etc.)

Also, my dad cornered us in the condo while mom was showering to tell us he wants to get her a keyboard, so we have a full cart at musiciansfriend.com that I need to order of keyboard, stand, stool, and carrying case. The very idea that my mom is going to own a ‘gig bag’ is hysterically funny to me.