How to address your new family

I was wrapping Christmas presents for our families over the holiday and started to write a tag for my father-in-law's gift from me and Mr. Onion and I wrote "for Dad" because that's how he would address his father. Then I was writing my mother-in-law's gift tag and without thinking wrote "for [her first name]."



It got me thinking -- what do you call your in-laws and how did you come to that decision. "Mom" and "Dad" just don't roll off my tongue.

Do you call your in-law's

a) Mom and Dad
b) "Jane" and "John" (ie. by their first names)
c) Mr. [so and so] and Mrs. [so and so]

And if you're not married yet, is this something you've discussed with your boyfriend/girlfriend/fiance? Might be an interesting topic of conversation.

"Inherited" Family

My fiance has quite a large family (mother was one of eight siblings and father was one of five)! This is a sharp contrast to my very small family (my mother has one sister and two boys in their 40's and my father had one sister -- with no kids -- who passed away last year). I had no cousins my age growing up to play with.

This means I've inherited a large number of cousins/peers and this year -- cousins-in-law as well. Ours is the fourth wedding of his cousins in 16 months! This also means lots of bridal showers and family gathering. I realized last night that if we went to his aunt's 4th of July party this Saturday it would be the fourth weekend in a row with his family -- cousin's wedding in Montreal, Father's BBQ in Connecticut in our honor, another cousin's bridal shower (yesterday - this time in Pennsylvania) and this weekend's 4th of July party would be #4! I asked him last night if it was ok if we took a break as Saturday is my mother's birthday and I was a little "family gathering-ed out." He was very sweet and said "Of COURSE!"

We are blessed that our parents live 10 minutes from each other which makes visiting much easier. How are you adjusting to your new family? Is it very similar to yours? Different? Do you live close to both sets of parents? Does one set live very far away?

BBQ welcome

Today my future in-laws hosted a BBQ at their house to introduce me to my future father-in-laws side of the family. Some of my fiance's uncles he hadn't seen in going on ten years, so this was a big family gathering. Because they aren't very close non of them will be attending the wedding, so it was nice to get to meet them all in a casual setting. I had a really nice time and was glad to meet many members of my fiance's family.

There were also a number of my future mother-in-laws family there all of whom I've gotten to know quite well over the last two years. My fiance's aunt and uncle gave us our first wedding present at the BBQ because she just couldn't wait. Apparently she bought it in March and because the BBQ was in our honor and she got our wedding invitation in the mail yesterday, she figured why not!

So I present to you our first wedding gift:



Oh yes, that's right! The coveted Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer! I'm SOOOO excited. It was very generous. The bargain hunter in me hoped she'd gotten a great deal on it. My fiance assures me she did as she had him take it of our Crate & Barrel Registry months ago. So excited.