I know it seems there are a ton of Christmas related questions on here so I'm sorry for yet another one :-/. Here's some background:
My DH has a brother and SIL who now have 3 kids. There are a single income family so I understand times are tough. We all agreed that this year for Christmas it would be "kids only." My DH and I have no kids (but expecting May 2014) so essentially we're buying for their family but our family doesn't get any gifts this year. Which is fine by us.
The concern I have is that we're significantly downsizing our gifts to the nieces/nephews this year. DH's own parents are as well because, as my MIL said, the family is growing. There isn't a bigger pie...everyone just gets a smaller piece of it. In 3 years we went from 2 nieces (one mine, one his), to 6 nieces/nephews. Three of them are all just his ONE brother's kids. I have 4 sisters and with 3 kids between all of them. All singletons too. In the past we would spend about $30 per kid but not with 6 nieces/nephews and our own on the way we've downsized this to only $15-$20 per kid across the board.
I'm concerned though about the reaction my BIL and SIL will have. I would hope they'd understand but I think they'll expect more because we're a two-income family. But student loans and day care aren't cheap. We have to live like a single income family too.
Any ideas how to GRACEFULLY respond to my SIL voicing her concerns/disappointment? She can be pretty blunt.