Lots of people buy gifts on trips but I'm not sure if this person is Asian or even far from home Did I miss something? I think you are just sharing an example of things people do but what I am asking is what specifically about this situation explains the MIL knowing about the shopping. Is it an assumptoin? Or did she maybe just ask OP's husband... " did so and so shop this trip? What did she get?" Just seems like some level of prying might have been involved before the app even came into play.

I don't understand why MIL knows that stuff was purchased or what that has to do with someone's flight schedule. Are they meeting her at the airport and want to know how much luggage will be going in the car? (not like prices are relevant) I'm so lost in MIL's logic

I think if you are aware of this scenario taking place you should step in and stop your dh/enlighten him. Which hopefully isn't too hard to do since your MIL isn't physically present. He could miss her call or have trouble with the app if necessary lol

I don't know, because the OP didn't introduce her as "my SIL." She said, "My BIL's wife." So that tripped me up. This made me think OP's husband has a brother married to this woman. Why on earth would he think it was okay to go through his SIL's room/purchases and then report them back to his mom? Even if it was his own sister. Overstepping.

Your husband feels comfortable doing this? I think you should discourage it/try to stop it. Who knows what she spent, price tags aren't always right. Doesn't seem right. I mean if I was at a family's home where people are visiting I wouldn't go through their luggage, not even my own siblings unless they told me to get something for them or there was an urgent need for something I thought was in their bag... even then I'd likely just ask them/call them to see if they had X I could borrow. So this relative is your dh's SIL and he thinks that's ok? Am I understanding correctly?

Funny. I feel like I may have heard shindig used in more than one context.

I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around that, too. All I can say is I hope there was some consolation for the birthday kid in extra leftovers.

autocorrect or an early Halloween party? :lol:

Just finished tooth fairy duty over here lol

No, not just you. Because of the weather we've decided not to go to church where we normally go tomorrow. If I go to a closer church they are having a potluck. I might just bring something store bought from tonight's grocery trip. Church is so early. Good luck. Glad you don't have to be quiet!

Was there no cake/dessert or they forgot to sing??

when I was a bit younger I might have thought this was neat, but I guess as a parent I'm a lot more hesitant. Don't feel bad for asking! We're looking at it from a parents' point-of-view and probably all know some sensitive kids lol. I hope he can have fun decorating or something. Honestly, some of our house decorations might have been scary to little ones. We've had graveyards before and also a talking tree decoration! He was silly at least. He used a bunch of puns.

Whoa. I thought they told ds it would be weekly. I met a woman that said her daughter went twice. I didn't know some did that or even three times. Wow!

I think you can do any amount electronically. So basically you could do it discreetly via email if you felt so compelled. In general I think giving the gift card or gift to the hostess would be more awkward than not bringing a gift if it was written loud and clear no gifts.

I know some people (or maybe this was just in TV land) have two bowls. They first reach for the wrong bowl and it's got something weird in it. Maybe like plastic spiders or something. Then they correct themselves and offer the real candy bowl. That might be okay. I just worry about little kids breaking out in tears if there is something scary that happens. They might take a bit to calm down and the parents probably call it a night after that. That could ruin an evening.

Honestly, I don't get the charitable donation thing. Just because someone says "I don't want/need gifts" does not mean "I want you to spend money in another way." :confused1: There was some invite we got several months ago that was kind of vague. It said something like gifts were not necessary but it wasn't a strongly worded "No gifts, please" type thing. It's a family we've known a few years and had gone to each other's parties a handful of times. I ended up giving the birthday girl a pair of cat sunglasses because she loves jaguars. They were a few bucks. In hindsight I should have given the gift to them in the parking lot, but oh well. I used to work at a retail store that sold Amazon gift cards. I knew I'd only seen them in $25 increments. The only places I've seen them in smaller amounts is electronic ones. On Swagbucks ($3, $5 are avail.) or on the actual Amazon site you can order I think any amount you want. I find most gift cards in public places require a min. purchase of $25. But if you go into the retailer (if Amazon was a brick and mortar store, not just a warehouse) you can usually get other amounts.

I don't get excited about long flights but finding some people to chat with sounds nice. Dh is nervous about planes. He is going to fly on one soon for a work thing. First tijme flying for him as an adult. I'm secretly or not-so-serenely hoping this means flying for us in the future. Or, I dunno, he could hate it lol. Where ever you are going, I hope you have a great time! Edited: just saw the post with destination

Ugh. So who did that gf consult when she had her own birthday meal? Dh kept trying to change the location of my birthday meal this weekend. I just bought a gift card for the place LOL. Use it with me or I'm going to find a way to use it sometime.

It doesn't defray the cost because the Amazon gift card would be spent by the child most likely. Like, in our household, ds would spend it on digital movies most likely.

Dh did have to get up early to get fresh ones, but it worked out. We had another attendee pick up the pizza for us (the pizza place wasn't open when he got the donuts and it was quite far from the house).

As someone that is openly frugal maybe my reply with help. When I throw parties I am not concerned about gifts at all. Ds took forever walking around Target trying to find something to buy with his gift card from my sister. It was not really defraying any costs. It was just icing on the cake so to speak. He got a book and a couple other things. His first thought? "I'm going to buy donuts with my gift card." Some kids don't even care that much about gifts. Also, I hate to admit this, but he has gifts in their original packaging sitting in his room. An untouched building kit, etc. Some are from Christmas. We are trying to step away from tangible gifts more and more as our home is small and clutter is consuming us.

How does he feel about donuts? Ds turned 9 this summer and asked for a donut cake. You could have mult. choices. This was ours. I think dh got too many donuts!! They had a thing where if you buy X number of donuts you get another dozen free. It was overkill LOL. We had a million leftovers as we didn't have a large party and discovered one or two guests were diabetic. But you could figure out how many would be suitable. It would be easier than baking a cake.

Ha! It looked like it was a long ad for the game. I also learned some other things. I had no idea that when the game ends it will give you a chance to continue from the same level or not. And it will make sounds to tell you what level you got to. It all just sounded like annoying beeps to me. Ds may have figured that out already. I don't know, but I'll tell him if he doesn't know that yet.

Ds was gifted Air Simon. Maybe I should have him try it out again. It's quite annoying to me LOL The game is quite loud. edited: ha I just saw on YouTube there is a way to adjust the volume!

Sorry but this made me laugh