Slips. Lots of slips.
I was 12 or 13… a bit of a tomboy. Every single gift I got from relatives across the country was a half slip. A mint green one that was memorable for its weird pleated ruffle around the bottom. A pink one with pink roses on it. Assorted white ones. I believe there were 5 or 6 of them.
I was hoping for books… 
At least the thank you notes were easy. Dear Grandma/Aunt Janis/Aunt Dale/Aunt Joan - thank you so much for the lovely… SLIP. 
Shiloh-My mother would ask what you want, then either get something else you didn’t want, or give it to you ten years later after you no longer wanted it. Even when you went shopping with her, and picked out what you want, sometimes she hid presents so well she never could find them.
One year I asked my divorced parents to go in together on a saddle, my dad gave me a large gift certificate to the local tack shop, my mother gave me leather pants from Victoria Secret.
At least she had the right material :lol:
I’ve just read through this entire thread for the first time. I laughed. I cried. I sighed. I found myself grateful for the fact that my history of gifts is not TOO awful. So I have a few low-level contributions.
First, I am a member of the leather horse club. I had two of them.
Second, my mother is the worst kind of gift giver - the kind who asks for a list and then ignores it and then gets offended if you don’t like what she got. This year she went one further. I sent her my amazon list and she called me to tell me she didn’t want to buy me anything on it and I needed to send her a different list, and in a specific price range. So I sent her a short list of things I didn’t particularly want which means I will probably get some of them.
One of the worst I’ve gotten was a SS through a book forum. That year it was suggested that we do a book exchange and that if we wanted to be part of the usual exchange and not receive a book, we could say so. I’m finicky about what I read so I said no book, please. My gifter not only gave me a book, but her used copy of the book that had been the discussion book in the group a couple weeks before (by an author I think is awful). IOW, something she was well aware I would have already had if I’d wanted it.
I’ve come to hate yankee swap/dirty santa/white elephant exchanges because I always try to contribute something nice but manage to end up with utter junk. Everything from a one-dollar tube of Christmas M&Ms at a “$15 limit” exchange, to a hideous Dollar-Store-Chic decorative plate with an angel on it. That went straight into File 13 after the party.
Seriously, people, if you’re going to get voluntarily involved in exchanges like this, buy something you would want to receive!
As a non-drinker and Al Anon member, I was … hmm ‘pleased’ isn’t the word… to receive a $100 gift card to a wine store from my MIL today.
Didn’t expect anything so will just pretend she never sent anything.
Angela-Wow! That crosses the line from clueless, to vicious.
My home shredder does a lovely job on gift cards like that.
[QUOTE=Angela Freda;8983232]
As a non-drinker and Al Anon member, I was … hmm ‘pleased’ isn’t the word… to receive a $100 gift card to a wine store from my MIL today.
Didn’t expect anything so will just pretend she never sent anything.[/QUOTE]
That’s not just wrong, that is wrong on so many levels.
There are sites where you can “sell” your gift card. This is one, but there are others.
https://www.cardpool.com/sell-gift-cards
My mother is a re-gifter. Not just getting things from people and giving them to others, but she gets gifts and gives them back to you.
I got clothes that she has been given that she doesn’t like. My mother is 5’3 and 105 pounds. She’s a small or xsmall or a 2/4 size. She give me those clothes and I’m 5’11 and 150 pounds when I’m working out. I wear a medium or size 6. Then she tells me that I USED to wear that size. Yes, when I had an eating disorder in high school. So fat shamed as well as gifted a shirt that doesn’t fit. I still smile and give my thanks.
I bought her a perfume that she asked for and that was on her list. It was not a cheap bottle of perfume either. It was $105 for a small bottle. That’s fine, I got her that and a few other things on her list. She was thrilled with it at Christmas. I was glad I could make her smile.
I received the perfume back half used next Christmas. Mind you I was not a fan of the perfume especially one that I bought myself for her and one that was half used. It was like a slap in the face. I broke my usual “thank you, that was so thoughtful,” and I actually asked, “Isn’t this the perfume that I bought for you last year?” She stuttered and gave me her smile and said, “oh but I thought it would be great on you!” Thanks Mom 
When I was a newlywed my mother used to buy me sexy lingerie knowing then husband liked that kind of thing. However, it was always two sizes too small and when I pointed that out she said I could give it to her since she was that size. So essentially, I got nothing from her.:mad:
As a non-drinker and Al Anon member, I was … hmm ‘pleased’ isn’t the word… to receive a $100 gift card to a wine store from my MIL today.
Didn’t expect anything so will just pretend she never sent anything.
If I were you I’d absolutely sell that thing and buy myself something fantastic that I actually wanted. That is, if it’s a true $100 gift card and not the wine cards they’ve been sending with State Line and I think Dover shipments which are actually $100 off IF you buy a case for like $400+.
“There was one year that I got a half used notebook because they thought I would like the picture on the front. While it was a nice picture, they left all the already used pages in the notebook. It was really weird.”
@Draftmare, I used to think the pine tree air freshener my sister got for me one year for Christmas (the same year I gave her a nice gift card to her favorite restaurant) was the worst, but the notebook wins!
I’m dreading tomorrow, not because I will get poor gifts, but because I will be the bad gifter. 
There’s a definite split in the two standards of my gifts- those I bought before last weekend’s colic bill, and those I bought after the bill ate my gift budget. All my gifts will be handed out with an abject apology
Fanfare, how is your horse?
[QUOTE=Angela Freda;8983232]
As a non-drinker and Al Anon member, I was … hmm ‘pleased’ isn’t the word… to receive a $100 gift card to a wine store from my MIL today.
Didn’t expect anything so will just pretend she never sent anything.[/QUOTE]
Donate it as a silent auction gift for a good cause or fund-raising event.
So this is not the “worst” by a longshot but it’s a headscratcher.
I have a friend who has been in my house and barn many times. It does not take many visits to the house to notice that I don’t really do “horsey” décor. I have a photos of my own horses here and there but otherwise I have a pretty modern style without a lot of equestrian tchotchkes. The barn is a work in progress, though it was laid out with the possibility for a tack room, it doesn’t have one yet. Just stalls, a wash stall and then a big empty, 2-stall area where I currently store hay and feed.
When I moved into the house 2 years ago, friend bought me a housewarming gift. It was these horseshoe hooks (the 3 in a row ones)… https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/small-horseshoe-hooks-6108 which to me seem like they belong in a tack room. So I figured she meant the gift to be for the barn (which wasn’t yet built when I moved into the house.
Then the barn was built. And she bought me a barnwarming gift. It was a another set of those hooks. The same ones. Even though she knew I hadn’t done the tack room yet. And, presumably, she knew I already HAD a set of those because she bought them for me. So I held on to them for eventual tack room use.
And then for Christmas last year… she bought be a couple small things including another set of those hooks. Again, the same ones! Why? She had bought me two sets already? And been to the barn numerous times to see I didn’t have a tack room yet to put up hooks. Also, who needs that many hooks?!
This Christmas I received a box from here that was too large and too heavy for those same horseshoe hooks. So I breathed a sigh of relief.
It was two of these…
Massive horse-head shaped hooks. For certain meant to be “home décor.”
Which leaves me wondering, why on EARTH my friend things I so BADLY need HOOKS?!?!?!
You will as you build out, vxf111! I am always adding hooks in various places around the barn. I keep a stash of those flexi-hooks in case I suddenly get a good idea where a convenient hook will save me time in my routine…every minute counts for us very busy people!
Renn, she seems to be doing fine;; Thanks for asking! Our snow melted, so she is out eating grass as/when she wants, and I am ensuring she moves around. I’m heading out to pick up her snow pads shortly and she’s drinking well and eating her very soupy meals no problem. It was miserable yesterday with a freezing wind, so I didn’t ride, but it’s actually a bit sunny now so I’m going to get on her and go for a march, especially since we’re supposed to get more snow by the weekend.
Oh, nobody noticed my gifts were maybe not at the same value as everyone else’s, and they were all things the giftees wanted too.
OMG hooks! I am a hook aficionado!
I think everything needs a hook:
The bathroom
The laundry/mud room
The backs of all your closet doors
The backs of all your bedroom doors
The pantry
The wash rack
The tack room (eventually)
Outside the stalls
The inside of the cabinet under all your sinks
I’ve always said when we build a house I will have a closet of hooks where I will hang my clothes that are in “limbo”–not dirty enough to put in the laundry–not clean enough to put away!
The only two things that don’t belong on hooks are shoes and wet towels because towels won’t dry on hooks in time for your next shower!
Can you tell that I don’t think anyone has enough hooks!
a) Agree with others, will never have enough hooks,
caveat with
b) Those are not the kind I would use with tack, because I prefer the rounded kind that are a more leather-friendly shape for tack for which those hooks are home.
But as ohnoO says, I’d definitely use them in the house for everything listed above. Understand, vfx111, that you don’t do horsey decor. But these can be in non-decorator functional positions such as the laundry room and so forth.
If you give one or a few away, would your friend notice? Does she even know how many she’s given you by now? < biggrin >
Your real question is WHY are you getting the same gift from the same friend, over and over. No clue, here. LOL Is there some subtle way to either ask her, or to kind of lead her to talk about that, without awkwardness? And tell us what she says? This really is a curious mystery.
You’ve been in her house? She has similar hooks all over her walls?
My house is REPLETE with hooks already as friend should know as she’s been inside many times?!
Her house seems to have a normal number of hooks, none horsey?!
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