<p>Last year I spent a week trying to make my in laws house look like something livable instead of an episode of “Hoarders.”</p>
<p>My awkward gift giving moment happened to me several times during that trip, as I excavated several layers of gifts we had given both of them for birthdays and Christmas gifts.</p>
<p>Unopened. Still in packages. Or even with the items still in boxes with our gift tags attached. I was kind of excited to realize that these delightful down blanket throws were there, because I was going to hijack one for my hotel room for the remainder of my visit. I asked my FIL if I could borrow one for the hotel bed, he didn’t know why I wanted to take his “stuff”. (Yeah, because they were being used on a daily basis, right? Not.)</p>
<p>I bought those blankets at least 7 or 8 years ago and they were still in the package. </p>
<p>Then later on, when I mentioned something about the 10 vases I found in the corner by the tv (they came attached to flowers I sent my MIL for mother’s day), my FIL told me to not bother sending flowers, because his wife didn’t really care about them and it’s just one more thing to collect dust.</p>
<p>So I stopped sending them. Then I heard in a backchannel way from my Sister in law, that my FIL was mad at us for not sending MIL flowers.</p>
<p>I can’t win.</p>