Dang, BuddyRoo! Your brother is in for it!
If it were me, when they opened ‘that’ present and started to turn beet red, I would pipe in and say ,‘Hey! Isn’t that mine?’
well, that’s just my family.
I do have to say that I was very lucky growing up. Our family at least tried. Then came the step monster who blatantly gave us crap.
Then came the in laws who really do think they are doing right but have since learned. Like she was about to buy us an entire dining room (yes, did I say they give their right arm to their kids?) but in her tastes. It was a crackled white set made from old barn wood. Yeah, I want to eat off that! Luckily, we’ve taught her well and she thought better of it.
This isn’t bad but funny. I hope it translates well enough. The movie is hysterical.
One year, my sister totally OD’d on cookies. I mean throwing up and everything. She just went to town on the things and paid for it. So my dad’s sister comes over to visit. And we exchange gifts. My sister is trying to be polite as can be but still green from all the binging. So we start to open the gifts. My sister is thinking of the gift and is feeling much better. She tears it open and opens up the shoebox to …
a box of cookies
She tearfully (trying not to be upset) looks straight up into the camera, mouth agape. Puts the box down, and makes a run for it to the bathroom. She did manage to say thank you in mid run.
Awesome- thanks for bringing this thread back up! I had to catch up on last years and this years.
I should probably get an award for giving the worst gift this year although not christmas and non-horsey. Hubby gives me a hard time at every damn occasion because apparently I can’t buy suitable gifts for him. I think he’s just a spoiled brat and when I ask him what he wants it’s always some fantasical (my new word of the month) item so expensive that he wouldn’t get it in his wildest dreams. Example: a 7series BMW, this watch that costs $5K, a trip somewhere to Europe, etc etc etc. Well after 13 yrs of being married- for Father’s day I got a little tired of it. He asked for something that cost well over $500 and my reply was “it’s supposed to be a token of thanks and happiness from your kids and wife- not some elaborate scheme to fill an outrageous list of wants”. He scoffed and sulked saying “I’ll buy it myself”.
So the kids gave him each a card and in my card I wrote- check your closet. LOL- evil me- ironed his shirts for the week. HAHAHA. Anyway I alsmost peed my pants laughing. Of course I’ll hear about it for the rest of my life but whatever. I told him he might get his pants ironed for christmas!
Back to horsey related christmas… just got another wonderful gift. The token photoshopped horsey calendar! From Grandmother. It didn’t make the flight back 
however. When picking out the gift I gave her though… a gold locket with the name grandmother written across the front… she opened it and didn’t say anything (which means she didn’t like it). I don’t feel so bad that she didn’t like. I’m sure it’ll end up in her top draw never to see daylight again.
Some of these are so funny, and some sad. I count this as a funny one.
My Granny was a very frugal woman. Never went for anything expensive or fancy in any aspect of her life, but she was a wonderful Granny. I had visited her in the fall and noticed all the towels in her house were threadbare–probably 20- to 30-years-old. For once, I thought, A Ha!, this is something I can buy her that she’ll like and actually have a use for–so I bought her a set of lovely towels–thick, great pattern, perfect. Christmas day, she opened up the gift, oohed and awwed. I thought: Winner!
Next year, Christmas rolls around. We’re home opening gifts, and Granny presents me with three boxes. What can it be? I opened them up. Yup: same towels I gave her the year before. Never been used. I oohed and awwed. She seemed so pleased by her choice of gift!!!:lol:
She was in her mid-eighties at the time, and even though she was pretty darn sharp 'til the end, I’m sure she completely forgot how the towels ended up at her house. And, she probably figured she was doing just fine with the ones she had. I still use those towels and laugh every time I think of how I acquired them.
The in-laws keep getting my children savings bonds. Cause that’s what a 6 year old and a two year old want when the neighbor is playing with the new Wii. Yup just gonna get out my savings bonds and count em. :D:lol::lol:
[QUOTE=Iron Horse Farm;3733043]
The in-laws keep getting my children savings bonds. Cause that’s what a 6 year old and a two year old want when the neighbor is playing with the new Wii. Yup just gonna get out my savings bonds and count em. :D:lol::lol:[/QUOTE]
Hey don’t knock the bonds! My gparents did this and I absolutely resented it as a kid but now at 27 I have a stash of $4100+ in bonds (at 4% interest) that are just sitting there making money for me. While the toys and clothes from when I was 5 are long gone, I have a nice pile of cash to play with that a lot of my friends would love to have.
Just yesterday my SO received a year subscription to Readers Digest. Yep I was shocked, it would be a great gift if you are the well over 50 set, but my SO is 24!!!
BTW its from an aunt that commented on a picture of me and the SO asking where her nephew is… the photo was of us on a boat drinking…poor woman is so clueless. She wants us to travel over 2 hours to go to the Mandarin for dinner…
[QUOTE=Iron Horse Farm;3733043]
The in-laws keep getting my children savings bonds. Cause that’s what a 6 year old and a two year old want when the neighbor is playing with the new Wii. Yup just gonna get out my savings bonds and count em. :D:lol::lol:[/QUOTE]
My grandparents did the same thing, quietly, in addition to the typical kiddie toys. I didn’t even know I HAD savings bonds until I was in grad school and needed to buy a new computer. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to afford one with the computing power I need for my research, when my mother casually suggests that I could use my savings bonds. Grandma and Grandpa had gotten me (and each of my sibs) a savings bond every year from age 1-18. The mature ones totalled to more than enough to get a decent laptop.
My sisters each used their bonds for moving expenses when they moved several states away from home after college. Nope, not fun at age 5, but greatly appreciated at 25.
BES
Actually, those are great. In 10 years, your then-16-and-12-year olds can cash them out and buy new bikes, or something. You might gently request some sort of small, fun things that can wrapped, though, like a truck or stuffed animal.
Oh, lord that’s trippy. More like the “LSD Country Collection”
My MIL has gotten me really nice jewelry a few times, which is totally wasted on me. I don’t wear jewelry much and if I do it is not of the style that she picks. It IS really nice though, and tasteful and all… .just not for me. I wish she’d just save her money. The in laws do so many nice things for me and my husband, some of which are pretty pricey too and they don’t need to buy me gifts at holidays.
[QUOTE=VCT;3734073]
My MIL has gotten me really nice jewelry a few times, which is totally wasted on me. I don’t wear jewelry much and if I do it is not of the style that she picks. It IS really nice though, and tasteful and all… .just not for me. I wish she’d just save her money. The in laws do so many nice things for me and my husband, some of which are pretty pricey too and they don’t need to buy me gifts at holidays.[/QUOTE]
Now there’s a problem to have!!!
My MIL threatened to wear black to my wedding…so I don’t expect any gifts from her…ever.
I bought a horse with my bonds
My brother and I read Reader’s Digest as kids… I think he was probably the only 8 year old in the world with a subscription to it :lol: But I certainly wouldn’t consider it to be only for older people!
I had to laugh at the vacuum cleaner salesman. Good advice… unless it’s a Roomba. I want one so bad! That’s all I’ve got on my holiday list (unless Santa feels like dropping of a pony, which I would have to accept out of courtesy)
Not worst present ever, but horsey…
The same relatives of boyfriend who picked up the “Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On” sign also got me a subscription to some Western discipline horse magazine. I wrote a nice thank you note and got a year of articles on why you should dye your boots pink to match your pink pants etc.
When I saw them next, I lied and said I enjoyed the magazines. They said “we knew you would. We picked it out because the horse on the December cover looks JUST like yours. So of course we knew it was just right.”
I have a chestnut QH, bay TB, and chestnut warmblood. The December cover had a leopard appy?!
I do have to give them credit for trying, a magazine would have been an awesome gift if it would have been the right discipline. They do really TRY.
Well, I’ll have to post after Xmas to tell you what MIL got us this year. :lol:
Last year, it was a decorative Xmas plate. The year before, a framed Xmas print. Um, thanks, but you’ve been to our house, and we don’t quite decorate that much for Xmas that we change the prints on the wall. We’re a little too busy working full time and taking care of the farm, horses, dogs, etc. Hell, we’re lucky to even get a tree put up before the big day. She has a real foo-foo decorated house in the city. What makes me a little mad is hubby gives her $$ constantly throughout the year. I mean, dang, could you not spend more than $15 on our gift if we give you a couple grand during the year?
And yes, I’m a tad passive-aggressive… so last year I spent a grand total of $15 on a pair of earrings for her. Granted they were really, really marked down and looked a lot more expensive, and she actually liked them. This year she’s getting a $15 bracelet and a framed photo of me and hubby, for a grand total of around $25, which really, is generous, I think. 
muhhhhhaaahaaaa… yes, I know, I’m bad.
When we were growing up, my parent’s neighbor would always, without fail, give them something horrid for Xmas. She was a widow and my dad would help her out with leaves, shoveling snow, etc., so she always wanted to give them something. One year it was this really really ugly framed watercolor painting, another year a hideous hooked rug. Mom would leave them accessible but put away until neighbor was going to be watching the house while we were on vacation, then would proudly display them. We still refer to ugly useless gifts as “Mrs. S” gifts. Poor woman, she was really really nice but just shopping impaired!
One solution to the bad gift problem: Stop the gifts! I have finally convinced my family to stop exchanging gifts, except for the kids. My brothers and I sent my mother to California for Christmas (hmm that came out wrong…we weren’t trying to get rid of her ;)), I get gifts for nieces and nephews under 20 and bring wine to my brothers and in laws and THAT IS IT! (Other than teacher gifts, housekeeper, assistants, vet, trainer etc…the usual “Christmas gratitude” type gifts)
I cannot tell you how liberating it is!
No more leather horses! No more mustang calendars! No more T-shirts with rearing Arabians!
My DH insists on getting something for his mother…and hear this…I MAKE HIM BUY IT HIMSELF. Astonishing, no?
Real exchange, December 23, 2007. “I haven’t gotten anything for Mom yet”. “mmhhmm” “What should I get her” “No idea” “None?” “None whatsoever. Enjoy the mall”.
[QUOTE=Mozart;3734187]
My DH insists on getting something for his mother…and hear this…I MAKE HIM BUY IT HIMSELF. Astonishing, no?
Real exchange, December 23, 2007. “I haven’t gotten anything for Mom yet”. “mmhhmm” “What should I get her” “No idea” “None?” “None whatsoever. Enjoy the mall”.[/QUOTE]
Oh Mozart you are sooooo mean!!!
My DH won’t let me buy presents for his mother. But honey, I really don’t have access to Arsenic at work!:eek:
I went to a Christmas raffle on Saturday, and they had a number of Chinese auction items. There was one I wanted to buy, just so I could give it as a horrible gag gift to a friend. It was a candle holder shaped like a tree stump, and in a hollow in the tree was a horse head. You know the picture of that horse who got its head stuck in the tree? It was like the opposite of that. Sadly, I did not win it, and thus could not torture any friends :no: .
A few years ago, my aunt suggested redesigning Christmas. All the adults (except my grandma) have names drawn, and only buy for that one person. Everyone knows who has who, and people give their gifters a list of things they want. It greatly simplifies Christmas. I’m still a child this year, so I get presents from everyone . Last year, my aunt gave me a Trail of Painted Ponies figurine, and I’m hoping she got me another one this year.
Both sides of my family seem to have the “no more gifts” policy but in a passive aggressive way! MIL et al agreed, gifts for children only, but then she always goes and gets “stocking stuffers” (don’t count as gifts, an attitude reinforced by not wrapping them???) for us anyway. This year: a country chic acrylic throw with a picture of a horse on it that doubles as a “parka” if you use plastic clips to secure it around you. Yay.
My own mother always says “no gifts” but then she makes tons of things like ornaments, decorative knick-knacks and little scrapbooks and sends those. So “no gifts” means don’t BUY anything, but I don’t have time to make homemade stuff, so I buy her something anyway, usually just a book, and then she reiterates the “no gifts” thing… sigh.
