Aunt Agony #2

I sometimes wonder if Aunt Agony does shit simply to piss me off.

If I was narcissistic, then perhaps I would just assume that she does it because of me. But I know her well enough to know she probably doesn't give a shit if I am pissed off by what she does, or not, as long as she is happy.

In our family there are 21 adults, including my generation of cousins who are all between 17 and 25, with the exception of two littlies - aged 4 and 1. Because it would bankrupt the lot of us to buy each adult a gift, we do a secret santa. Each year the organisation falls onto my shoulders and each year I happily oblige and draw the names out. There are rules for secret santa, not too complex (at least in my opinion) that have seen the whole system working smoothly for years.

1) Children (ie my generation) cannot get their own siblings, partner or parents (this is because we all decided that we'd be buying a gift for siblings and parents anyway, so no need to waste compulsory gifts on them)
2) Adults (ie my parent's generation) cannot get their own children or partner (again, it's assumed that parents will buy gifts for their own children and their husband/wife etc)

So, then you have to buy a present for your secret santa person, but you may choose to buy a gift for anyone else.

It's so simple a child could manage it. So in the past when I did the draws I made sure that no rules were broken and tried to make sure no one go the same person twice etc. I add in new boyfriends or girlfriends and take out old ones. It's not a foolproof system but it works. I did this year's draw last week, at Aunt Agony's insistence, and distributed the details.

I got an email the other day from her. It had an excel file attached with the secret santas for the next 5 years. She had sat down and worked it out for the next 5 years, until 2011. The problem was she'd taken this year's list and simply moved it all up one space each year. So that meant that my cousins all got their own father and one cousin got her boyfriend. I tried, as politely as possible, to point this out to her, but she just replied saying "if you want to buy gifts for other people, that is outside the Secret Santa." But what if someone dies? Or one of the my many unattached cousins meet someone? Or my uncle leaves his present partner, again? I tried, but it's like banging my head on a wall.

She's only doing this because she's a pedantic control freak who buys Christmas gifts in January because that's when the sales are. Which wouldn't be too bad except her gifts are always things that she likes. She doesn't appear to consider the actual recipient. In fairness, she might, but if she does then she doesn't do a good job. She has a bit of reputation. My sister helped me with the draw this year and when it came to mum's turn, Aunt Agony was drawn. She quickly put it back before anyone saw because she didn't want mum stuck with a dud pressie lol.

I do love her. Really I do. But she shits me up the wall.

Rant over.