Family-In-Law

I am fortunate enough to say that I am super excited about the family-in-law that I will soon be a part of. I couldn't imagine an easier or nicer family to get along with and I am really looking forward to all of the family functions that we will be able to participate in.

In the last week, I have heard the words 'in-law' in reference to me more than I ever have in my entire life. I've heard daughter-in-law, son-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, etc. and it really got me thinking: is there any way to shorten those phrases? Not that it takes too terribly long to say them, but seriously - four syllables for essentially 'one' word? That's a bit much.

Therefore, I've come up with an easy and effective way of differentiating between all of these common phrases and people that are now a huge part of our lives: abbreviation. (See below.)

Mother-in-Law = MIL (How easy is that?)
Father-in-Law = FIL (This is actually a name so it works well; can also double up as the abbrv. for Family-in-Law.)
Brother-in-Law = BIL (Again, a great name! This is going to be quite fun!)
Sister-in-Law = SIL (We'll all become part of a Dr. Suess family!)
Grandmother/Grandfather-in-Law = MA / PA GIL (Our children are going to be very confused.)

Because Brian and I both come from divorced families, we also have step-parents and step-family involved in our lives. Much to my amusement, this is where it gets really fun!

Step-Father-in-Law = SFIL (Tom and Scott are going to love this one.)
Step-Mother-in-Law = SMIL (Is that past tense of smell?)
Step-Brother-in-Law = SBIL (Wow, we are really stretching this one.)
Step-Sister-in-Law = SSIL (Be sure to put a bit of emphasis on the double 's'.)

And so on. I think you get it by now.

A quick note to my future FIL: my hopes are that you all enjoy being part of my fam as much as I already enjoy being a part of yours...(and that you don't mind your abbreviated names!)

Love,
Your future DIL