the in-laws and the ick

So, its been a few weeks now, but Christmas with the in-laws was great.  It was fun to see nephew and niece and nephew (almost 2) was a lot of fun and a great helper when it came to unwrapping presents…and the presents were great.  Husband finally got some non-clothes gifts.  You know, the kind he actually gets excited about.  I loved everything I got, which is amazing considering the differences between my mother-in-law and me.  (Don’t get me wrong, she’s great – just sooooo different from me).  The greatest thing about Christmas with the in-laws is that I didn’t get sick.  Why would I even think that you might ask?  Well, I have a history of tossing my cookies in the presence of my in-laws – on holidays.

The first time I went to Husband’s home town (not the first time I met his parents), was Mother’s Day.  It was before we were engaged and I had spent all of about 3 hours total with the folks prior to this.  I wasn’t feeling great in the morning when Husband came to pick me up, but I figured it would pass and I’d be fine.  I didn’t want to cancel at the last minute and come off looking lame.  Instead, I had to ask my boyfriend to pull over at a gas station on the way there, so I could vomit.  I had the luxury of walking out of the restroom and seeing him waiting for me – definitely within earshot of my heaves.  I opted (stupidly) to be brave and continue the journey.  On top of that, I opted to meet at church as planned instead of skipping church to go lay down.  Long story short, I puked in the bathroom at church a couple of times (within earshot of my mother-in-law) before we left to go to his parents house where I finally fell asleep and Mother’s Day lunch was ruined and then had to settle for pizza.

The first Christmas with Husband (2005) was a few weeks before our wedding.  We went to my parents’ house for the few days before Christmas, then woke up Christmas morning and drove the 6 hours to his parents’ house.  About 30 minutes before we got there, I started feeling a little ick.  I managed to hang in there until all of the extended family showed up, so that I could hurl within earshot of my fiance, his brother, his brother’s wife, his parents, his grandpa, his aunt, his 3 uncles, and his 5 cousins during the gift exchange.  It was so glamorous.

The first vacation that we went out with the in-laws (Husband’s parents, Husband’s Brother, Husband’s Brother’s Wife and baby Nephew) was Labor Day weekend 2006.  We got a great condo on a lake and mostly hung out at the great condo because we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything because Nephew was either napping, eating, almost napping, or almost eating.  Husband’s Brother’s Wife had been sick earlier in the week and Husband’s Brother was having some “stomach issues” (if you know what I mean) the first couple of days we were there.  On the day that we actually ventured out to an outlet mall, we all got some fudge.  I ate way too much fudge and felt kind of pukey.  I certainly chalked that up to the fudge.  I mean one person is not supposed to eat 8 pound of fudge all in one day.  We went to an outdoor show that evening.  It was all downhill from there.  The evening included me seeing very little show, but a lot of the inside of the toilet bowl; and with the rest of the family seeing the show and me vomiting behind a truck on the way to the parking lot.  The best part was when we were all in a mini-van on the way back to the condo and I vomited into a trash can in the mini-van full of my in-laws.  I mean, its just what I always dreamed of for in-law bonding.