The other day I was picking BD up at MIL's house, and MIL wanted to show me a dress she got for BD in the kids room. Now, to recap, MIL sends stuff to SS to try and maintain a relationship, sometimes at the expense of DH (she, among other things, took DH's ukelele to ship off--given to him by a good friend--from his apartment--literally, she sneaked into his apartment and looked for things she could give so she could pretend they have a relationship--and he flipped when he found out, to the point where she had to unbox the thing to give it back to him.)

I knew, when I saw the adult male tie and some other odds and end trinkets in the box on the bed, that she wouldn't be able to resist name-dropping and bragging, just a little dig at me to get her through the day. She began with, "Oh I'm sending these over to my grandson and... well, nevermind." (You know, if you're going to change your mind about saying it in the middle, maybe you should not say it at all?)

So I go home and after putting BD to bed, me and DH are cuddling on the couch, I told him his mom did something strange, and ask him if he saw the tie in the kids room at his mom's house. He said no, but why should it matter. And so I told him his mom wanted to send it and I asked if the tie was his, or his deceased father's (since we have a bag of his father's old ties we were going to give his brother sitting in the den).

The answer was, "Uh, didn't Cousin XXX leave his tie here for Aunt YYY's funeral two months ago?" (This Cousin has never met SS nor have any relationship whatsoever with him.)

And we both burst out laughing. DH said when he sees his mom again, he'll ask her whether or not Cousin XXX has asked for his tie back yet. (He's pretty sure, based on what colors the tie was, that it's not his.)

MIL probably forgot and thinks the tie is DH's (but I knew it was strange because I bought all of his ties and we threw out the other ones because they were stained and frayed, and that isn't a color I'd choose... unless MIL's been digging through our garbage.)

What WOULD bother me is that we had a barbecue last week where MIL came over, and if she had taken it from our the bag of his father's ties... well, she would no longer be welcome, obviously. For now, it's a hilarious mix-up because we're pretty sure we know whose tie that is, and Cousin xxx is going to be confused when he finds out what MIL had done.