My soon to be family-in-law has a 30+ year tradition of trashing the bride and groom on their wedding night. It can happen in a variety of ways, like trashing the hotel room (having a kegger in the honeymoon suite and filling the hot tub up with drunk cousins, tossing flour and oatmeal into the bed, changing the lights to black lights)... and if they can't break into the room, they trash your home (flipping furniture, changing out the spice rack with other substances, etc)... and if not the home, your car (tire slashing, filling the car up with sand so you can't drive it, etc). If they are unsuccessful at these attempts, they've stolen the bride, dropped her off at an unknown location and left her there to try to call for help to get back to the reception. These aren't your ordinary family practical jokes.. it can result in costly damages to the hotel room, lost time on the wedding day and leave a bad impression with the bride's side of the family.
At the shower that was thrown for me this weekend, the family threaten to do something to the new house that we just purchased. While I have a great sense of humor, to hear that my fathers luxury car might be damaged or that our new home might be broken in to and trashed leaves me feeling very distant from feeling welcomed into the family. Has anyone else dealt with this behavior? How can I keep from stressing out about it? I am surprised that even the women of the family are into this, saying that 'they knew where I lived'... ugh!