I sympathize with you. My advice is to do whatever you want to do. It is crazy to try to please family members who won't be pleased with us anyway. Besides, do they really need to know that you bought yourself a bike?

I heard some great advice one time about getting into debt for the holidays, but I wish I could credit the source. He said that we need to think whether the person we are gifting would WANT us to buy something that we couldn't afford. And if they would still want the present, knowing that it will cause us hardship, then is this person really someone who cares about us?

DISCLAIMER: I am such a humbug at Christmas. I go shopping on Christmas Eve for little indulgences for myself, and I inwardly am smug at all the stressed out, grumpy people needing that last little 'thing' to get the holiday right. I just want to tell them, "Go home! Put your feet up! And RELAX! It's supposed to be a HOLIDAY!"