I have been mostly disengaged with SD16 and SD13 for several months because they are wastes of space who treat me horribly.

Well, Christmas is coming up. SDs haven't/won't talk to DH since summer... even though he tries very hard to remind them how much he loves them and wants a relationship with them. Even though DH has become much better at limiting his Disney tendencies, Christmas Magic has a way of getting the best of even good husbands with baggage. He told me that he wanted to spend about $200-$300 per kid, which equals almost a grand between his 3 kids. EFF THAT NOISE! I don't think so! We already pay BM $3500 a month in CS and alimony!!

So, I re-engaged long enough to pick out their gifts. I acted like I *really* had some wonderful ideas that I put a ton of time into thinking about. I ran them past him... didn't tell him how much they cost... and bought them online. He sent me an email saying "Honey, you are SO amazing. Thank you so much for doing this for us."

Now... I will say... they are very nice gifts. The girls will like them quite a bit, I think. But, they also cost less than $100. Because they are nice as stand-alone gifts, I think I proved to him that you don't have to spend a fortune to give something nice.

I re-engaged for a few minutes. I saved myself a lot of money. I feel good about that... I feel good about helping ME. In an ideal world, we'd get them nothing. But, I think I can live with the Christmas spending this year. Now... as long as he doesn't go crazy and start buying extras, we might survive the holidays this year.