I think it's not worth the emotional pain to get upset over the type of gift someone gives you. Maybe it's petty, but I simply give gifts of similar value and thoughtfulness to the ones I tend to receive. I know one of my DS always gives thoughtful gifts despite her limited budget, so I actually buy her pretty nice stuff that costs significantly more than she usually spends on my gifts. My parents hit a low point with DW one year when they gave her underwear. 3-to-a-pack Walmart underwear, mind you, not something nice. That was just the last straw in a steady downward spiral. Now rather than spending a few hundred on my parents I just grab whatever's on super-low clearance discount. The money saved gets spent on DW, so things even out nicely in my mind. I have another sibling who seems to give me and DW whatever's laying around his house, wrapped up in a gift basket and presented as a "family gift", LOL. I also used to give him and his DW very nice, carefully thought-out stuff, but now he and his DW also get stuff from the "final clearance" table. I was joking with DW that when his package to us arrives this year we should just donate it to the needy without bothering to open it. Anyway, my point is that the disparity in either thoughtfulness or price can lead to resentment when it comes to gifts. It defeats the purpose to try to get the other party to step up to your level, so downgrade at your end and reset your expectations.

DH's family draws names for Christmas and we have a $25 limit. One year my FIL drew my name and asked me what I wanted. I had seen some Christmas themed dishes at Zellers for $25 and asked him for those. He wanted me to go and get them myself, but I didn't think that would be as much fun so I asked him to take care of it. Then my DH asked me what I wanted our small kids to give me. I told him the same thing, thinking that then I would have Christmas dishes to serve eight people as each package was a service for four. On Christmas morning I opened the gift from the kids and of course was thrilled to be surprised with my set of Zellers dishes. At the in-laws, I opened the same size box. Inside was a beautiful service for four of really expensive Christmas dishes - FIL didn't think the Zellers ones were nice enough! So then DH had to take back the Zellers dishes and we had to buy the rest of the service of the expesive one. DH had travelled to five stores in four towns to buy that set of Zellers dishes! To this day (about 25 years later) we still use those expensive dishes for the month of December.

Cleaned up and ready for bed! Dinner went well. A few people cancelled due to icy roads, everyone else made it and as each new group arrived they were hailed as heroes. It really is crazy slick out there. I decided to steam the crabs, but to assuage my vegan friend, I first chilled the crabs by setting them outside until they went dormant, then placed each one in boiling water to kill it quickly, before transferring to the steamer. 25 minutes steaming. The crabs were very good, although I can't say they were dramatically different than boiled crabs. After dinner, getting ready for a white elephant present game. SWMBO is sitting at the piano. The man in the black sweater is a standup comic, a very funny guy. His wife has white hair and is also wearing a black sweater. She was a model in England in the early 1990s, now a makeup artist for film, TV, and print. She recently returned to England and reconnected with her friend who fronted the BritPop band "Lick" and, for a brief moment, was in the limelight, then walked away from music. https://youtu.be/jYeAE4y6Vkg She and her friend are working on a book or screenplay or something about those days. It is an interesting story. The English music scene then was controlled by a few labels and promoters who choose which bands to make into stars. He was overtly gay and that was still unacceptable in the industry. They struggled, finally found a label, started touring and released an album, then the pressure blew the band up and he decided it wasn't for him. He recently regained control of his band's music and I've been listening to their first and only record. Not exactly my kind of music now (or then - in the 1990s I was a jazz snob), but it sounds pretty fresh even 25 years later. We haven't had a big dinner party for quite a while. It was fun to shake off some of the rust and get a bunch of friends together. Finally, here's the cat with her Christmas present, knitted by DD. She doesn't mind wearing it.

My online shopping was all good: Kohl's, Best Buy, LL Bean, Land's End, Amazon and Ebay. I have my items sent to work as our neighborhood has sadly had things stolen from porches. There were some things I ordered late and they have not arrived yet - but I knew the dates were post-Christmas when I ordered. Only one is a semi-gift (a jacket for my husband who lost a lot of weight and needs one in a smaller size). The upside of those is that I'm shipping them to Son#1's place of work, as I won't be back to my own job for a couple of weeks. So we're going to meet him for dinner once he has both my orders. Katlan's rude checkout clerk reminded me of my rude clerk story from several years ago. I was buying Christmas ornaments to decorate a metal tree I'd gotten from a specialty store. The sum total was probably more than I'd spent for the tree itself. I was buying a couple of other things too. As the clerk was ringing the things up we realized that there was something wrong with one of the boxes I was buying. The clerk ended up being really rude about it. We finished the purchase with the plan that I would go way back to the seasonal section to get another box - even the cashier manager had come over to help because she heard the rude cashier. However, after starting to walk back to switch the boxes, instead I turned around and went over to customer service and told them I wanted to return everything. Everything?! Yes. I said that the clerk had been really rude and and that made me mentally step back and realize that I was overspending. Customer service wanted to know who the clerk had been, but I said that I understood that it's the stressful Christmas shopping season and I didn't want to point her out, but just wanted my money back. (I ended up getting the tree ornaments from Joanne Fabrics and used some JF Bucks I had to pay!) I guess a thank you to the rude clerk for helping me to spend less?