My husband's cousin and her husband are in the west for a medical consultation. Their children are following them tonight and will stay until Christmas break so they can all be together. We won't be seeing each other so my sister-in-law asked me to send a gift basket.

 

I happen to like this couple but I don't like the idea of doing the legwork for the gift basket. Whatever I do, whatever effort I put in, I seem to fall short. She always has something to say, so I'm like, why bother?

 

Her next option was to asked my husband's friend, who lives 30 minutes away, to send a gift basket in our behalf and she will just pay. By the look on my face in tonight's dinner, she probably thought it's the initial shelling out of money I didn't like to do.

 

I used to say something whenever issues like this arise but my husband said, I'm putting him in the middle. It's harder not to say a word and the impression it generates is still not positive.

 

Whether I say something or not, I get misunderstood anyway.