Dealing with a compulsive liar in the family at Christmas dinner.

[enlightenment]

11. I suppose you could run a secret contest

among the family members who do not go home with her at the end of the day. Have everyone sit down and write the following on a piece of paper. No one looks at anyone else's sheet until after she is safely gone.

Two parts:

1. Winner is the person who comes closest to the number of tall tales she will tell over the course of the meal (or the gathering as a whole).

2. Winner is the person who invents the most outlandish tale tale that she might tell - extra points if she actually tells some version of this tale at the gathering.

For amusement, each person should have an identifiable "secret word" that all the other contestants know. When she tells a tall tale, you all try to inject your secret word into your next comment. For example: as you pass the stuffing, she starts to tell a story about her experience as a pastry chef at a Michlin starred restaurant. Your secret word is "cranberry", so you turn to the person next to you and say "more of that delicious cranberry compote, Nigel?" Nigel, who chose (unwisely) "diverticulitis" then responds with, "no thank you, CT, those little seeds are murder on my diverticulitis . . ."


In other words, amuse yourselves at her expense, but without causing her pain. I do have a relative like that and while it is intensely annoying it is also quite pathetic and concerning.