I'm sorry to speak about your family but I feel you may agree with my assessment of... "What a bitch".There was this one time where we were offered the choice to get a Christmas present or have my Father in Law pay for lodging for us for the whole family (-) weekend trip the following summer.
I should have said "neither", because I'm too old to receive gifts from anyone, and too jaded to give gifts to anyone other than my kids and grankids.
Well, I told my wife that I didn't care, and she opted for the free lodging. What I didn't know was that her sister was arranging the whole thing. I've been burned by this sister thing in the past, and I should have Fing known Fing better. We end up at some $40 a night motel next to the highway. Admittedly it was pretty clean, and I wasn't afeared of getting scabies or some such. But they did spring for pool passes at the nearby Hilton. It was nice that sister's kids got pool passes, and spent most of the day in there not interacting with anyone, and nobody else wanted to go into a confined indoor water attraction. But it was nice for her kids, the only kids in the family that would enjoy such a thing.
While there were some interesting aspects to our stay at those lodgings, including an attempted shakedown by a "trucker" who "lost his ride", and a proposition by a prostitute, and a domestic situation arising at about 2am from one guy getting caught with a girl in a room that was not his girlfiend (and she was beating him like a punk, and he was taking it like a punk), in general, I would have not have chosen that as a peaceful place to lay my head down.
Funny times, right? Except there's another sister in the picture. I'm sure it was a joint decision between the two that they would find the cheapest accomodations possible. Ok, I'm still on board, save dad some money, good on'ya. Until...
I found out that the two sisters had bet each other whether or not I would stay at the motel, or move my family to the Hilton, at my expense. I was about to move to the Hilton at that point, checking availabilty on my phone with limited service. When I heard about their comments, I was livid. I'm an Infantryman. These coddled girls and their submissive husbands aren't going to make me leave. F, I should have spent the rest of the weekend in a lean-to out back of the motel.
If I crossed a line with that pm me and I'll edit the post. Otherwise good on you for sticking it out to show you ain't no punk.
Considering your position on gifts I'll not mention my bday is coming up and try to shake you down for a gift.