Once they learned who I was it settled down nicely. However, they needed to be broken of the notion that I'm a pushover that does whatever they want and forces my wife to do said-same.

Where things go to shit is the passive-aggressive nature of her mom. I got chewed out six months ago for an off-handed remark I made in 2010. To someone else. But she's been sitting there stewing, waiting to chew me out for it for three years. That kinda shit happens regularly.

Over Thanksgiving I caught grief for buying brining mix from Trader Joe's. Why? Because I had told my mother-in-law two years previously that she didn't need to bring brining mix to Thanksgiving. Why did I say that? Because she packs too much crap. What didn't I know? She'd bought a package of brining mix from Cost Plus and was about to throw it in her luggage, and it has now been sitting on the kitchen counter for two years. So there I am, getting my ass bitten off in my own kitchen, while cooking my own 24-lb heritage breed turkey, which they're eating, because my mother-in-law won't toss or give away $4 worth of salt she bought on a lark in 2011.

This is why I don't ask their permission.