Getting Gifts from Strangers is Weird

This will likely be the last wedding related post, but it is something on my mind a lot lately as my in-laws’ friends have been sending us gifts. My partner does not find this odd at all because apparently for as long as he can remember people he does not know and never met have given him gifts. I have never experienced that. I always knew everyone because they were all friends of the whole family.

My partner and myself have never met these folks and never even heard of them before, yet they are buying us gifts and coming to a big party my in-laws have been planning for us. It just feels weird to me. “Hi, nice to meet you! Thank you for buying us that $150 whats-it.” Anyone else have an odd feeling about that? I know its part of my in-laws’ socialite lifestyle to go to a lot of parties for folks they do not know, but to me it is completely foreign.