Dreaming of a White Christmas

We resume our adventure several months later on Christmas day.  You are driving south to see your wife and daughter at her mother's house.  She has been helping her mother during her recovery from surgery, and it has been nearly a week since you've seen her or Kennedy.  Before you left, your wife called to tell you that your daughter has gotten another ear infection.  Her sister neglected to give her daughter the medicine that she needed, and as a result of her negligence, your daughter's coughing and congested breathing can clearly be heard over the phone.


Also, she doesn't bathe.


As you drive along the empty country roads, all you can do is think about your poor daughter being sick as a result of your sister-in-law's ineptitude.  You can feel the rage rising up inside you like stomach acid, eating away your sense of common decency and political correctness.  For the duration of the scene, take a -2 penalty to all diplomacy checks related to your sister-in-law.  


You arrive at your destination, turn off the car and unbuckle your seatbelt.  You take your daughter's Christmas present and walk up to the front door.  As you open the door, you see your mother-in-law, your wife and your daughter on the couch, and the sister-in-law in a chair on the other side of the room.  What do you do?


For the record, I critically failed my first diplomacy check of the day after I arrived.  The sister-in-law's daughter walked into the room chewing on something that wasn't quite discernible.  When my mother-in-law asked what she was chewing on, the mother carelessly replied, "A piece of styrofoam."  I rolled a '1' on my diplomacy check and looked at her with a less-than-pleasant expression on my face and blurted out, "Really?"

My critical failure ended up working out for me in the end, though, as she got up and left the room.  The gift in question that I brought for Kennedy was a Leapfrog My Pal Violet.  It is a purple stuffed dog that sings and talks like so many other baby toys, but this one really piqued my geek.  It can be connected to a computer with the included USB cable and programmed to use your child's name and even spell it out.  The onboard memory can be programmed for ten different songs from a list of over forty from the Leapfrog website.

Kennedy absolutely loved it, and we really liked the lullaby feature that plays two, five, or ten minutes of bedtime music.  With Kennedy being sick, it was nice to see her finally get some rest.  My wife suggested to her sister that she should get one for her daughter.  A nice educational toy like this one could really do wonders for the child.  But no, her mother simply scoffed at my wife, as though we had just told her she couldn't watch TV tonight.  We'll get one for her if her mother doesn't care enough to do it herself.

How was everyone's Christmas festivities?