Who should bring home the left over food?

by Garry
(New Hyde Park, NY)

My family was invited to Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's house. We always bring something and asked what was needed. We were told to bring drinks, preferably Snapple Ice Tea and soda. So we brought several large bottles of tea and soda. Right before we were leaving it was noticed that a fair amount of the drinks was left in the bottles.

It was mentioned (not by us) as amn aside, and my sister in law volunteered that it was OK, she had an office party coming up and would bring what was left as her contribution. We thought that was an inappropriate thing to say.

A co worker told me that what is brought to one's home, even food, is a 'gift' and the host can choose to do what they want with it (or whats left of any edibles or drinks) once the party is over, since it's theirs.

Since we saw others who had brought salads, etc. go home with the remains, we felt we had the right to be asked if we wanted to bring what we had brought, home. In any case I found it rude to announce that what we had paid for is going to be finished up by others. What we didn't know wouldn't have bothered us. To keep the drinks in the fridge for our hosts future meals would've been fine with us.