Dear Prudence,
My husband’s family—a large, loud, tightly knit bunch—lives in New York. Our family lives in a smaller Southern city. We probably see them three or four times a year and almost always travel to them, since they don’t want to come here. My teens are obsessed with a popular Broadway show, so for Christmas last year, I maxed out my credit card and managed to secure tickets for the four of us. The kids were thrilled. The show is coming up in a few weeks, but there’s a problem with my brother-in-law. He’s complained to my husband several times that we should have also purchased tickets for their family and that we were selfish for not including them in our plans. For what it’s worth, I think he’s probably the only one who is disappointed that he’s not going. To add to that awkwardness, we usually stay at their house when we visit. What can we do to fix this?
—Neglecting Our Host