[QUOTE=DressageGeek “Ribbon Ho”;2876574]
If this does not work, then buy him a lovely A/P size saddle pad, for example. Then look at him blankly when he opens it, and say, “But - I thought you’d love this!” Monogram it so that he can’t return it.
Hopefully, this will be one trial learning.[/QUOTE]
Since my father is horrible at buying me gifts because of step-witch. I am ordering a new fleece cooler for Stinky that has his name on it. I will pretend it is from my dad. 
[QUOTE=horse-loverz;2876551]
Well, it wasn’t Christmas but this year for my birthday I got a toilet!!! A TOILET!!! Ours went on the fritz and my DH placed a new one and said Happy Bday… lets just say I hope he learned from that experience and does better at Christmas… but somehow I doubt it… I love him dearly but he is gift buying challenged… seriously no clue… .not even the most obvious hints work… Oh well…:no:[/QUOTE]
OMG that tops the year my father decided to get Mom a new dishwasher for Christmas…installed Dec 22. My family opens gifts on Dec 24, not Dec 25. This resulted in lots of dust from the old one being removed, all over the kitchen floor:eek::eek: mixed in with mud from the service man’s boots, AND it took longer than expected to install:rolleyes:, maybe because we still had the original goldenrod yellow dishwasher from when the house was built circa 1985. Can we say right idea, wrong time??? :forehead slapping icon: Dad kept repeating “But I thought you’d want a new one in time for Christmas dinner”…nevermind that Mom handwashes all the good china, wineglasses and silver!
I was a bit appalled, but not surprised. After all, my father started looking to my sisters and me for gift suggestions for Mom when we were 8, 6 and 3. That was the year he took us to Vicky’s Secret and bought Mom something my sibs and I refered to as “the blue thing.”:eek::eek::eek:
BlueEyedSorrel
Everyone thinks they need to get me a horse calendar. Everyone. I get at least 3 a year. I don’t even need 1 calendar!
[QUOTE=horse-loverz;2876551]
Well, it wasn’t Christmas but this year for my birthday I got a toilet!!! A TOILET!!! Ours went on the fritz and my DH placed a new one and said Happy Bday… lets just say I hope he learned from that experience and does better at Christmas… but somehow I doubt it… I love him dearly but he is gift buying challenged… seriously no clue… .not even the most obvious hints work… Oh well…:no:[/QUOTE]I remember that. I think that’s what prompted my Confucius-inspired, stick-art tribute. 
This year, as I was standing in the plumbing aisle in Walmart, I was very tempted to buy a padded toilet-seat and scrub brush for our (extended) family Christmas white elephant exchange. Payback, if you will, for the abundance of $hit my cousins have heaped in there over the years. I thought it would be fitting. My more diplomatic side prevailed, however, so my contribution will instead be a bottle of cabernet and some dark chocolate. :sigh:
[QUOTE=DressageGeek “Ribbon Ho”;2876574]
H-L - you need to make a list. A list in VERY BIG FONT. With links, description, price, and EZ access to but it in smaller font underneath. Tape it to his forehead if needed.
If this does not work, then buy him a lovely A/P size saddle pad, for example. Then look at him blankly when he opens it, and say, “But - I thought you’d love this!” Monogram it so that he can’t return it.
Hopefully, this will be one trial learning.[/QUOTE]\
Well I DID use his credit card and ordered myself some fleece lined jeans from LL bean… and wrapped them as well… so I’ll have to practice my best:eek: face when I open it…:lol: I seriously hope that isn’t all I’m getting despite the Dover/Smart Pac/ Stateline catalogs that are open with items circled all over the house… I mean seriously you can’t swing one of my cat’s without hitting one…:sigh: He is a better gift buyer for his mother… SHE’s getting a new LCD HDTV… 
can anyone say M A M A ’ S B O Y!!! I knew this when I married him but lately it’s been grating a bit… but I’m not bitter… really I’m not…:rolleyes:
[QUOTE=QHDQ;2876618]
Everyone thinks they need to get me a horse calendar. Everyone. I get at least 3 a year. I don’t even need 1 calendar![/QUOTE]
Same here… Sigh
[QUOTE=QHDQ;2876618]
Everyone thinks they need to get me a horse calendar. Everyone. I get at least 3 a year. I don’t even need 1 calendar![/QUOTE]
Ditto…
This was the one I didn’t get!
:no: This goes back nearly 40 years. I had had horsey for 3 years while I was in college and he was pasture boarded. I had just gotten my first job and moved to a boarding barn. Horsey was living indoors for the first time. All I wanted for Christmas was a Baker blanket. This blanket shaped thing appeared under my parents tree about 3 weeks before Christmas. It looked and felt like a horse blanket. I was excited. Oops! It turned out to be a verrry nice comforter. It’s still kicking around my house somewhere. I suppose I could have taken it back. In fact, my mother told me to. It came from the leading department store in the city and cost $75. (Remember, this was 40 years ago. :lol:) Bakers cost $50. But I kept it and used my Christmas money plus some of my own to buy the blanket. I am ashamed/embarassed to say that I kicked up a big enough stink that my parents NEVER made that kind of mistake again. And yes, the subject came up off and on for years. Many years later we laughed about it, but it was a sore topic for quite a while.
Combine the fox hunting gifts with the horsie gifts and we have a real bowl full of ugly at times.
So hiddeous that I cannot recall many without feeling nauseated.
However…The very best of the ugly gifts was a pair of huge, fox head clip-on earrings. Fake gold with red, gleaming eyes - but I love them!!! They are so gaudy and retro. Have worn them to cocktail-y things and have had quite a reaction. Of course, the person who gave them to me knows my sense of humor, or, um, style…
One Christmas three years ago my husband proudly brought home a fox-themed Christmas tree. He saw it in a christmas shop someone took him to (because we like to fox hunt, remember?) and bought the whole, I mean whole thing. Every fugly plastic ornament, the plaid tree skirt, plaid cones to hold whatever, every piece of ribbon and glittered pine cone on it a stuffed snooty fox for the top and the artificial tree. He was so proud of himself and knew I would adore it. Yikes! Guess what? I have put it all out every year except for this. I tell him how lovely he is to do that for me and pretend I like it!
If you like big gaudy retro stuff, xeroxchick, I might have some earrings for you…if I can remember where they are!
This reminds me of a gift my best friend in high school got me for graduation. I had got her a gift, I think a set of cookie cutters in different shapes (she did a lot of baking and other home ec-ey type stuff). At any rate, I put some thought into it and got something she would like and use. She told me she was going to get me something when her family went to New Orleans later that month. This was pre-Katrina by about 6 years.
She came back with this huge pair of navy button earrings with a fake gold deformed looking horsehead in the middle:eek::eek::eek: I could not imagine even my grandmother wearing them. I like small, simple jewelry and this girl had known me since 1rst grade! The handwritten price was still visible on the cardboard backing thingy–a whopping $10. I don’t remember what I said after opening the gift. I tried my best to be gracious, but I’ve never been a good actress.
Looking back, maybe this was a sign of how much she valued our friendship. Things were rocky during senior year since we were both competing to be valedictorian–I got it, she didn’t. After we went away to college, we got together maybe 3 times the first year and none after that. Oddly, her parents are my parents’ main hay supplier and they are still friends:confused:
BlueEyedSorrel
The first year they were married, my brother’s new wife got everyone …pajamas. Seems what her mother would do is declare, “This year, everyone gets sweaters!” And so she decided the same, but …pajamas.
First, my dad does not wear them. And she knew this, because he had been in the hospital, and had to drive my mother, who has vision issues and cannot drive, so that she could get him a pair for the stay.
Second, the pair she got for my mom was a very - I mean very - low cut housecoat type thing. Like so low her boobs would be hanging out. And she’s 82, so not pretty.
For me? Something she got in the young jrs section. I didn’t know whether to be complimented that she thought I wore a small size, or whether I should be insulted that she thought I was about 17. And they were …frilly. And frou frou. Now, if they had been cutely designed pajamas with horsies on them…that’s one thing.But at my age, and in my position, I can buy pajamas for myself. Especially from TJMaxx.
Needless to say, my parents and I mad ea special trip to TJMaxx for the return the next day. I was tempted the next year to get them a rectangular tablecloth, since their dining room table is oval, but I resisted.
Been there done that! My in-laws got me and hubby matching flannel pjs last year. Mine was the one-piece nightgown with HIGH collar with lace trim that went from my chin to my toes. Hubby got matching flannel pants and long sleeve button down. This wouldn’t be so bad except we live in FL where there are a whopping 2 cold days (and even that, “cold” is 50 degrees)!
Of course my step-mom got my hubby boxers the same year, along with a set of shot glasses. I still can’t figure out what that message was?
I was scared to open this thread for fear of confirming that I am the world’s worst gift-giver, particularly for my young nieces and nephews. Instead, ROFL. (whoever had the aunt that grew the zucchini-with-face on it - HILARIOUS!! I wish to trade aunts, please)
I’m a practical sort - so to me, socks, a new dishwasher, and headlamps are AWESOME gifts. Lucky for me AND for Mr. CC, we think alike on that.
He once announced to his family that he would consider himself to be a rich man if he had a new pair of socks for every day (he burns through them fast) so to this day he receives a multitude of socks for Xmas and B-day. Which is great for me, too! I don’t have to spend time matching the old ones, and I have that many more socks to tie on to horse blanket buckles so I can launder them without clanging or tears!
I collect evil kitschy chickens, the more demented-looking, the better - there is nary a cute chicken or rooster in my house. My MIL has not noticed the distinction, and every year I receive more cutesie-country-chicken kitchen stuff than I have room for, or want. I appreciate the try, though! If anyone needs some cutesie-country-chicken kitchen cookie jars/cream pitchers/egg cups(?!), let me know, these suckers need to go to a home that appreciates them!! : )
UGH!
Alright. I was just given a T-shirt that says “15 hands between your legs is better than one.”
[QUOTE=xeroxchick;2877031]
Alright. I was just given a T-shirt that says “15 hands between your legs is better than one.”[/QUOTE]
OMG, you totally win.
[QUOTE=xeroxchick;2877031]
Alright. I was just given a T-shirt that says “15 hands between your legs is better than one.”[/QUOTE]
:lol:
I have a book titled, Sixteen Hands Between Your Legs. It’s actually a funny read… light-hearted description of eventing.
But no… I would not wear a tee-shirt with that phrase. That ranks up there with the free tee eCampus sent me when I ordered some books in college. In HUGE letters: “Easy! Fast! Cheap!” I gave it to a male friend who thought it was funny, and - sad to say - he wore it often. Oddly though, it seemed to suit him. :lol:
I am sure that if I were to delve in to the depths of my repressed memories, I could come up with more than my fair share of evil, bug-eyed plaster horse head gifts, but I still don’t think I can touch most of you.
However, if some of you are looking for a good cause to donate said terrible gifts to, two of my uncles try to see who can give the other the most terrible gift. We’re talking porcelain pigs in overalls, three foot tall cowboy boot statues, etc. (Here is where I should mention that one of the rules of this exchange is that the “gift” must be prominently displayed in the receiver’s home). For a period of time their wives banned porcelain gifts because their houses were being over run with the stuff.
[QUOTE=camohn;2875843]
OMG I FOUND them! They DO still make them!!
http://www.toesocks.co.uk/Knee-high_Stripy_Rainbow-p-241.html?cat_sel=160_67
For something more local I looked on Ebay. Not only do they have those lovelies (I put a bid in on them for the kid! Not anything I would EVER have bought her unless she said this am she would LIKE them gawd help us…) but I also found an even BETTER pair to bid on. Pink argyle toe socks with pink foofie stuff (think feather boa…) around the top cuff and a pink pig knit onto each big toe![/QUOTE]
My 8 year old is sitting on the couch proudly wearing HER toe socks, even as I type! She has turned them into slippers and can’t wait to wear them to pajama day at school. Hers are purple and pink striped with a googly eyed (yes, glued on eyes) yellow cat across the top of the foot. The toes make the four legs and the pinky toe makes the tail. Oh, and let’s not forget the blue fish that are up and down the stripes in case “kitty” gets hungry! Truly a lovely example of toe socks. Found them at one of those big discount shoe warehouses in case you all want to run out and get yourselves some.
As for my worst Christmas gift, Mom was horsey, so my horsey gifts as a kid were all really good ones and nobody else ever tried.
However, last year my MIL gave me (and all my SIL) those spangly purses that look kind of like disco balls - you know the ones teenagers were carrying for a while? Well, she thought they were the cutest things and got them for all of us. I am over 40 - no woman my age should be carrying this thing - actually no one should be carrying this thing period. I did my best to be polite and figured my youngest could play with it. A week later we were invited to a post-holiday party where we had a horrible gift exchange! Well, I had the perfect gift and was the clear winner of that contest! :yes:
One of those nylon halters where each piece is a different color! I think I gave it away the day after Christmas!
The worst non-horsey gift: Chicken pox. Broke out in them on Christmas Eve about 5 years ago. I must have been REALLY bad that year
[QUOTE=QHDQ;2876618]
Everyone thinks they need to get me a horse calendar. Everyone. I get at least 3 a year. I don’t even need 1 calendar![/QUOTE]
:lol::lol:
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