Thanks girls...it's nice to know all families have the same issues. I did put my "big girl panties" on last night and calmly discussed everything with the mr. We both agreed it's impossible to keep both sides happy all the time, especially when his side changes things all the time. It drives him nuts too but hey, they're his family and like the saying goes, you can't pick 'em you've just gotta figure a way to deal with them. Then all of a sudden my own mother came up with a solution without even knowing there was a problem. She wants the "whole family", that's every living soul we can find to come to a gathering she is going to host in January. Of course I'm doing the planning for her but somehow I think it will be ok. Better than Christmas....now we can hopefully get everyone together at the same time, same table. That hasn't been done in at least 15 years. She's even asked me to print out our family history book that I've been working on for years to have it to give to everyone with all the old photo's etc. I'm actually looking forward to it! Gee mom's are soooo wise.