Thank you E-Hell, for helping me to help my friends! :)

[Bottlecaps]

I've still got a good bit to learn, but I want to thank E-Hell for letting me help my friends - and to make sure the advice I gave her was OK. She was invited to a baby shower for (I kid you not) the daughter of a random (presumably very distant, since she included "not even related" in the story) cousin whom she had only met briefly at a function. She said, "Nothing screams 'give me stuff' ('stuff' replacing another word she used)," like an invite like this. I told her, "Politely decline to attend and do not send a thing. Do not feed the gimme pigs."

[Mental Magpie]

Yay!  I love passing on spine-stiffening advice, it makes me a feel a little bit more complete.  Congrats on helping another one not feed the gimmee pigs!

[WillyNilly]

You absolutely gave her good advice, right on the mark. As we always say "an invitation is not a summons," and its also not an invoice.  A polite decline, perhaps with a "congratulations" and/or "I wish every happiness to your growing family" is more then enough response.