Jamie 2337-that is just so terrible! Since she was a great aunt, maybe she was a bit feeble-minded and didn’t realize what she was saying.
Really-if you don’t have something nice to say (or give) don’t bother…
[QUOTE=Vindicated;5275784]
(Back story: When I was 16 my mother gave me a wonderful horse pendant and chain. I never took it off, even during Pony Club, where most jewlery was forbidden-I kept it tucked in to my shirt-until one day (about 10 years later) we were going to a fairly dressy event and I was wearing gold and the necklace was silver. My necklace got lost somehow that day-never to be seen again. But very missed.) [/QUOTE]
That’s sad. 
Do you ever check ebay? I’ve looked for some things I’ve either lost or wanted to replace for some reason and found them there. Never hurts to look.
.
I’m a type I diabetic. For Christmas one year, my brother and sister-in-law gave me a HUGE box of chocolates…and no, they were NOT sugar-free. Don’t you just love those thoughtful gifts?
One of my favorite presents was just a stocking stuffer, but it truly fit my warped sense of humor. It’s a pencil sharpener in the shape of a dog. Guess where you stick the pencil?
Sorta Horse Related
One year my boyfriend’s mother and sister bought me gifts.
Previous years I’d only received token gifts from the boyfriend’s niece/nephew (plastic horse, cheap jewellery) that I knew the kids were really excited to give. I even wore the jewellery around them later. So I was taken aback to get gifts from the mom/sister. I was even more surprised when I opened the gift bag and found a few riding crops. Different styles, colors, and shapes. I was in college at the time and not riding, a fact they knew.
Turns out they didn’t intend me to use them whilst riding horses. That relationship was already ending, and for other reasons, but that gift really helped cement the decision :yes:
I might have just placed myself in the running for this year. My family jokes about my love of ferrets, because the rest of them find ferrets creepy. I texted my mother a few minutes ago: “I just found a website for tacky ferret gifts! Guess what someone’s getting for her birthday.”
As I was typing out a second text, I hit the ignore button for one that came in from her. My text: "A t-shirt that says “Hark! The ferret angels sing!”
The text I didn’t read before I sent mine? “I need to know if there’s anything special you want for Christmas.”
I guess come Christmas morning, we’ll see.
:lol:
Now, inquiring minds want to know…(but I am assuming it’s not PG)
The worse Christmas present I ever got to date…
I was 14, wanted a horse of my own… were not horsey people in my family for a generation or two…
My Dad (still love him) told me he got me a horse and it was in the kitchen cabinet… I though ooooh a picture of my horse!
RAN and I mean RAN through the house and tore the cabinet contents apart…
no horse picture… Yelled that I couldn’t find it… Dad came out and gave me a bottle of LePage’s…
No crappy gift from previous bf’s family of shirts that CLEARLY wouldnt fit, things that weren’t my taste, things I had no use for but had to thank you for AND wear (think A Christmas story)… could ever compare to that type of thing.
Best “gift” my horse (and I got him myself).
I told my sister who is very fru fru when she asked about the horse… I said “He’s EVERY Christmas and Birthday present I’ve ever wanted.” It was right about then that the Fam started to TRY to “get it”.
Okay I had to look it up because I had no idea what LePage’s was… GLUE?!? That makes the whole thing even more awful. :no:
Last Christmas my husband gave me a bobble-head horse figurine with the note “This is the Schoolmaster you’ve always wanted. He’ll never go lame”.
Certainly can’t top the LePage gift…
My mother, always the practical one, came with a very big wrapped box for me. I thought it might be some tack or some blankets or something useful like that.
The box was so light weight. Couldn’t be blankets. What could it be?
After layers of gift wrap I found a whole case of lightbulbs!!
This gift was not to me but to a friend’s child from her grandmother. Grandmother was very wealthy, but known for her stingy gifts. One Christmas, the poor kid was given a pair of slippers that Grandmother was given on her flight on the Concord. Used slippers, mind you. Child dutifully wrote a thank you note; Grandmother sent it back corrected, in red.
Wow.
I forgot to mention my husband’s worst ever Christmas gift…
His brother, noted for giving used freebies and then expecting kudos, gave hubby a flannel bathrobe. It was nearly new – worn only once by his recently deceased neighbor.
These are great!
These are hilarious!
Ive gotten some bad ones - once, I got some unicorn earrings and necklace. Mostly the cheezy tshirts are bad.
I have to say, my hubby does well. One year he built me a manure spreader. From scratch. It was pretty cool. Not something I could really brag about at work but my horsie friends were pretty impressed.
He built me stalls last year.
One year he repaired my driving cart after I wrecked it, and bought sleigh runners for it as well.
I was a late teens or early 20’s when my brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Not thinking I told him 'You know any kind of horse crap is good with me" :rolleyes:
It didn’t connect Christmas morning as to why my dog was SO interested in the gift from my brother. He admits to going out the morning of and finding the freshest pile he could. :yes:
He did redeem himself as he got me the exact pad, bridle, girth, breastcoller combo that I had been dreeming of! 
An electric toothbrush (the $6 drugstore kind.) Batteries wrapped separately. Thanks, Mom!
I must say I really am aghasted. Call me naive, but (except in the case of an evil SIL), isn’t the point to be thinking of the other person? Maybe it’s my competitive nature, but I love when I “score” the right gift for someone.
Every year around this time (in fact, this year’s was tonight), I have over all the students in my lab and their SOs. This includes anyone who rotated (ie were trying out the lab for their PhD work), and any kids who graduated but are in the area (like ex undergrads now in grad school). Santa visits and leaves gifts under the tree, and I provide a buffet dinner with huge amounts of leftovers they can take with them when they study for finals. It is my way of saying, “Thanks for going the extra bit when I need you to.” And I am so happy that I nailed it for each student. But then, I know these students. I pay attention.
So, I can see someone who doesn’t know horse stuff very well making the attempt and not getting the right thing. But glue? to a horse crazy child? Or not getting the pendant when you are given written instructions and you know it means so much? or correcting a thank you note for a crappy gift you gave a child? or smacking down a child’s ego when you hand over a bag of m&m’s?
I just don’t see how people can be so unthinkingly hurtful.
[QUOTE=King’s Ransom;2054345]
Well, I have one that is not funny and not horsey. But since Christmas is coming up again, and we’re all talking about it, I would be interested in what you guys would do with this.
A few years back, at the end of a very serious relationship that went suddenly and unexpectedly sour, my soon-to-be ex-BF gave me a VERY expensive watch. Here is how he did it. He called me and gave me his cc # and exp. date and told me to go online and buy it. He really wanted me to have it, but was too busy to do it himself. ??? At any rate, the danged watch is a Cartier and it cost a bundle.
Fast forward to today. I love the watch. In theory, at least. It’s a wonderful watch. But I hate the whole situation surrounding it. I always think of it as my “booby prize” (no pun intended) or “parting gift.” I think the guy felt very guilty for the very slimey thing he was doing, and this expensive watch made him feel better. In many ways, it made me feel worse. Definitely my worst Christmas gift ever.
AND, to keep it horse-related, I have nowhere to wear this watch anymore. King entered my life as the ex- exited. Now I live on a small farm with two horses and absolutely nowhere to wear this expensive watch.
So … do I keep it and wear it occasionally and forget about the whole awful-ness of the thing … send it back to the guy with a hateful note … or sell it on ebay?
Hate the guy. Love the watch. What to do?[/QUOTE]
Sell it!!!Toxic memories…
First, let me just say I love this thread!
[QUOTE=wildlifer;5275264]
I love my chirpy bird clock!! (I’m a wildlife biologist, maybe that helps) I think my worst was the year my dad gave me a hatchet in a shoebox. That’s right, a hatchet. In a shoebox. I was about 17 – I mean, I know I wasn’t all girly-girl, but really? My mom and I both stared rather dumb-foundedly and I said, “Well. I guess I can fend off carjackers?”[/QUOTE]
My dad has a long history of gifts that come from a loving place and show that he cares, but are just, well…odd.
Dad likes to go to this cigar/pawn/hardware/junk store that is a block from his business. The store is a local landmark that he has been buying crap from since he and my uncles were small boys pooling their allowance money to buy a bb gun. Much to my mother’s embarassment, he goes there all the time and is on a first name basis with the grizzled old man cashier. The cigar place is not all bad: in high school, I was able to score lots of horse grooming tools when the junk store bought up the inventory of a tack store going out of business.
Anyway, one year when I was in college, my father got everyone in the family (me, my 2 sisters, my mom and my grandparents) this automobile escape gadget that the store had on sale. It had a blade to cut a seatbelt, a metal point to break the window and a flashlight all combined in one bright orange plastic thingie. So at the family Christmas celebration, I pull a strange, hard thing wrapped in tissue paper of my stocking, unwrap this gadget and asked what would I use it for. Dad says “well, if you should drive into Lake Erie you can escape the car and not drown.”
I went to college in Cleveland, OH, at a school that is MILES from Lake Erie. Oh and there are concrete barriers on the side of I-90 so you can’t just go off the road and into the lake. But thanks anyway Dad. That was also the year Dad got me pepper spray for my birthday (5 days after xmas)
Several years later, my little sister was driving my old car and was t-boned going through an intersection (other driver was a hot dogging teen who ran a red light). She was OK, the car was totalled. Dad made sure to remove the escape gadget from the car before it was hauled off to the junk yard! I think he left a cassette tape behind, but he remembered the escape tool.
BES
OMG I must find one! I have a friend who has a phobia about running off the road, into the water, and drowning.
An EX got me a set of pans. Was very proud. He is an ex…
