My MIL is... often a well-meaning woman... but more than a bit of a disaster. She lives a good hour away from us, much closer to other family members and often she's best loved from afar, where she can't use guilt and pity to manipulate you into helping her out of mess after mess.

She's also very... frugal. And distracted.

So my husband and I are having our first baby and we're planning a baby shower at our home for later this month. When we started planning the shower (early in the second trimester) I thought it would be nice to pose the idea of throwing a second baby shower for their large family to attend because I don't want to ask people to have to make the 1-2 hour drive out here. She loved the idea and set about planning, supposedly including my two SIL.

Or so we thought. It seems she really waited and did all the planning in the last week by herself.

My first baby shower ended up being outside... at night... in December (northern hemisphere so it's cold outside)... She and FIL can't stop arguing... There was really loud music and cheap beer... about 5 guests, only one of whom was family (neither SIL show)... and the cheapest, most disgusting cake I've ever tasted... This cake is dry and bland with awful, overly sweet, grainy icing that makes my throat and teeth hurt and the baker inside of me want to weep...

There being only 5 guests and she bought a half sheet of cake meaning that there were ample leftovers that we have to take home because my MIL is diabetic. And now I have this awful cake and no idea what to do with it.

I can't eat it, it makes my teeth ache too much and I want to throw up. I can't pawn it off on my friends, I actually like my friends. I feel bad just throwing it away.

I didn't have high expectations because I know she's that kind of person but still I want to feel like someone cares. (Now that I'm alone and thinking about it, I am actually crying. Hello, third trimester hormone induced emotions.) It was just really disappointing... I would have been fine if just my husband's 3 siblings (even just 2 of them) had been there, instead of 4 strangers.