What did ya get? 
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive January 2008:
What did ya get?
I got the Cuttlebug, 5 alphabets, some misc dies & embossing folders, a book, several Target gift cards, a Hobby Lobby gift card, iTunes gift card, and a scrap magazine subscription.
What did you all get?
I got my Zune and a speaker dock for it and I LOVE it! I also got an oil diffuser, pajamas, several additions to my snowman collection, perfume, a gift card to finance our New Years party catering and a few new Fiestaware pieces: the bread plate, salt and pepper shakers and a spoon rest. Quite honestly, I haven't been thrilled with my gifts the last few years and I am ecstatic with the things I got this year. My family was very thoughtful this year.
My dh got me a Coach purse. I love it!
I also got clothes, a candle from ds, and necklace from dd, a teapot and silicone cookie sheet thing from BIL.
Wireless Weather Station, with remote out on the garage, so the temp isn't skewed by being next to a warm house. LOL! Tells me outside temp/humidity/inside temp/time/date/day of week! LOL! Sounds nerdy, but I really wanted it!
Also, even though I got this before Christmas, it was kind of a Christmas present. My computer got a new video card, so I can buy a wide-screen monitor, early in the coming year, and get all the digital value of it! I don't know when I'm going to get the new monitor, though.
A cute knitting ornament from Sarah
3 cones of Peaches n Creme cotton yarn,
a sunflower pillow,
a Starbucks gift pack with mug and coffee, along with one packet of hot chocolate. (not really a coffee drinker, though!)
an angel made from a dishtowel, dishrag, and hot pad
From the nephew, we got a $25 gift card for Applebees, along with $20, which was supposed to pay for drinks, but I think DH already spent it! For Gary and me.
Some more little stuff that I'm not remembering, at the moment. I know I kept putting stuff in my big pillow bag! LOL!
We haven't had Christmas with my family yet. That will come this weekend.
I got a new set of Emeril pots, a jog outfit, a wine chiller, some books, a pair of boots(like Uggs) and a matching vest, a snow globe from my oldest ds, and my youngest ds made me a 2008 calender at school. His teacher is just awesome. He drew and colored pictures for each month. It is probably my favorite gift!
Ok that calendar sounds awesome Debbie! Tink, I got a Zune too. Pretty cool. I have been using it while I walk on my treadmill this week. I actually went to the store and picked it out. ha
Dh brought me some very nice wooden place mats from CR. They fold up. Kinda cool. The boys gave me a pot pourri holder from Kirklands. I might have gone to the store and picked that out and wrapped it for myself too. LOL Oh and I got a rabbit cookie jar and a beaded necklace and bracelet from my aunt. She makes the jewelry and it is soooo nice, love it. I also got a $50 gift card to Coldwater Creek. Which I will wait and use after next week hopefully they'll have a good sale on. I spent about $200 on clothes for myself before Christmas for work, as well...
~3 pairs of sneakers (that I wanted)
~a Jessica McClintock gown for our upcoming cruise
~gift card to Roadhouse Grill
~magazine subscription to glass quarterly
~new glass cutter and soldering iron
~flowers
~a scrapbook Jessica made and it is a riot. It is full of jokes and drawn pictures. This is my favorite!
~a clean car (Addison cleaned it inside & out for me)
~several Christmas books
~3 bags of Costa Rican coffee
~a check (that was part of an inheritance) it paid off some debt and our cruise.
Dh and I picked out all our own gifts, but the kids don't know that. I got a bench for the vanity in my bathroom, a couple of Willow Tree figurines that I really wanted and dh ordered me a jacket with our karate school logo on it that came in the day after Christmas (the only gift I didn't know about). We're going to pick it up tonight. I also got lots of goodies (homemade) from daycare parents and a couple gift cards to restaurants.
I now have a bionic dog. LOL Who is doing very well after her surgery and a folk guitar which I now have to learn how to play.
I got a Sony walkman MP3/video/radio player, a mom's calendar, some blank cards to make my cards with, a really comfy and warm pair of pj's with slippers, a gift card to Palais Royal, and a popcorn popper that I've been wanting.
in my stocking I got the CUTEST kermit the frog socks (he's my newest fun obsession, lol..) a package of MUCH needed earrings, and some needed new underwear. lol... Mom made my stocking and I made her's.
Jeff gave us a digital picture frame, Jen gave each of us a Starbucks go-mug and a gift card to Starbucks, we also got another coffee-and-mugs gift, some candles, some sweet stuff, and we got 2 more musician prints for the walls when we were in Key West - from us to us. :-)
I looked at my stuff a little closer. I also got a carved wooden angel, with a nativity scene on the body of her "dress." It's very pretty. I also got a little stuffed bear that is wearing a nurse's uniform. I remembered opening something that was soft and squishy, but couldn't remember what it was. It was a fabric tissue holder, for my purse.
Santa was generous this year, a 47 inch hd TV, a sony blue ray player, and and Acura TSX.
Acura TSX?!!! Congrats! Love those cars. PRetty! I would like one of those big TV's to hang on my living room wall, too.
Woot! Colette hit the Santa jackpot! You must have been a VERY good girl this year. Enjoy your new toy.
I had a really good Christmas this year. I got a suede overnight bag I've been wanting, some new perfume, the Eagles new cd (I received two of them actually), a Michael Buble cd, tickets to see Rodney Carrington when he comes to town in the spring, some Bath and Body products in the scent I like, speakers for my IPod, two very nice chef knives that I've been wanting, and other assorted small items.
The worst gift I received was from my MIL, yet again. She gives me the worst gift every single year without fail!!! This year I got a towel set in coal black with a "W" monogrammed on them. Why is that a bad gift? Well, first of all, two of my bathrooms are a sagey green and the third is blue. But the biggest reason it is a crummy gift is because our last name begins with an "H" NOT a "W"!!! She even told me where my gift came from. She ordered herself some stuff from JC Penny and in the package was this monogrammed towel set she didn't order. It wasn't on the invoice and she was never charged for it so instead of sending it back, she saved it for my Christmas present. I'm looking on the bright side though, at least my gift from her wasn't used, broken, rusty, or encrusted with old food this year. LOL
Wow, Tunnia....that's really obnoxious!! It was wrong of her to keep the towel set without paying for it (even though it was the store's fault and not her's) and why on earth did she TELL you all this?? Why not at least TRY to act like she picked the gift out for you?? What have her other gifts in the past been??
Ditto Kate on the towels from your MIL and we love Rodney Carrington! That should be so fun!
Yikes, on the towels. Maybe let hubby use them as car-washing towels? Or just use them yourselves, but don't have them out when company comes? (oh yeah, thanks "mom" for "splurging" on you!)
I bought really nice towels, for my SIL. She loved them!
Tunnia,
I'm DYING to know what the previous years' gifts were, because that is truly the most obnoxious gift ever!!
LOL, this is going to be long! The towels aren't the worst gift she's ever given to me and I have no idea why she always feels the need to tell us where the crappy gifts she gives comes from. I guess it is because she is so thrilled that she hasn't had to spend much, if anything. I agree that it was VERY wrong of her to keep the towels, but dh and I can't see how we can take them back ourselves. We'd look crazy walking into the store with these towels and saying, "MIL got these by mistake through a mail order and then gave them to us for Christmas, here take them back." The store wouldn't know what to do with them either.
It's not just me she gives bad gifts to. This year she gave our 7yo ds a mouse pad. Then when ds was disappointed in his gift she harped at him all day for not liking it.
Dh doesn't get gifts from her any longer because a few years ago he told her to stop giving us used crap for gifts and it made her really mad. He hasn't received anything from her since then, but the worst gift he ever received from her was an electric razor. It doesn't sound bad at first, but dh told her he needed and electric razor for Christmas (this was about 16 years ago when we were dating). When Christmas arrived he unwrapped his package to find an electric razor box. He opened the box and there was a coffee mug inside. The next year she gave him the razor that had come in the box. She had bought it for dh's step-father the year before, but the step-father had died of a heart attack during the year so she gave dh the step-father's used razor!
The worst gift I have gotten from her was a stand mixer. When I first unwrapped the gift she told me that the reason the box was open was that she had taken the instructions out to read them and lost them. Then I opened the box and noticed that the mixer in the box didn't match the picture on the box. They weren't even the same brand. I took the old mixer out and it not only had rust on it, but had old, crusty food stuck to it! She had bought herself a new stand mixer and placed her old, worn out mixer in the box and tried to pass it off as new.
I have also received an old, wooden lazy susan with the veneer peeling off and chips of wood missing, pepto bismol pink strawberry shapped dishes that were cracked and chipped so badly that they had to be thrown away, steak knives that belonged to her last husband when they combined households (they were the knives that they didn't want and were going to throw out), several small ceramic vases and ring holders that people had given her throughout the years that she didn't like and had thrown in a drawer, a stand grater that she no longer used, and a dusty marble slab sterno hot dog cooker (what the ????) that her last husband and his deceased wife had gotten for a wedding gift in the 60s, I think. There have been more in the 14 years dh and I have been married, but those are all I can think of right now. She is the queen of obnoxious!!!
BTW, she demands very nice gifts from us and usually gets what she asks for and NEVER says thank you or acts like she even likes her gifts.
Geez!! We are starting a new tradition next year and not exchanging gifts any more with adult relatives, it just gets to crazy. We are still buying for the kids though. Can you try something like that with her?
I don't have words, Tunnia...I just don't have words. Why do you and DH buy her nice gifts? I think I'd give her a plant or some cookies or fudge and call it a day!
Shame on your seven year old for not getting excited about a MOUSE PAD!!! Sheesh! Was it no doubt some freebie a computer store was giving away plastered with some hideous logo? Anyway, what did your seven year old want, anyway?? TOYS?? ;o)
I'm sorry you guys go through this every year. :o(
We don't exchange presents with Gary's brother and wife. We also don't exchange presents with my sisters and their spouses either. We generally don't know what to get these people and it's just easier not to. We all buy for the kids, though, who now range in age from 18 down to 12 (13 in a few weeks).
Tunnia, the woman can't even try to get nice gifts? I can't believe she treats you all like a thrift store. That was unbelievably tacky to wrap a mug in a razor box, when your hubby really wanted a razor. So, she can't even buy nice presents for her own kid?
Tunnia, I think I would be tempted to buy (or find) the same sort of gifts she gives to you. Maybe that would send a strong message.
We never exchanged gifts with the adults (other than parents) but when my dad died 7 years ago we started to. My sister is a single mom with a loser ex. If we didn't buy her anything she would have nothing to open on Christmas morning.
My MIL got DH and I matching UGLY sweatshirts! I'm sure they are something that would have been made and worn in the 80s. But, at least they are new...nothing like your gifts TUnnia!
The reason we get her nice gifts is because I refuse to stoop to her level, as tempting as it is. At first it was really annoying, but now we just laugh about it and try to guess what might be under the tree this time. I tried giving her gift ideas back in the beginning, but she said that she gets people what she wants to get them not what they ask for. She's a real piece of work across the board, not just in the gift giving department. I tell dh (he is an only child, btw) all the time that I have no idea how he turned out so good and normal after being raised by her.
Yeah, sounds like you take the high road. Probably better in the long run.
I wouldn't stoop to her level, but I'd still do the plant/candy type route. Those gifts are NEW and are fine, but at least you're not spending a ton of money on her and you're not buying off her list when she refuses to allow you guys a list... I can't believe she only has ONE child (hence one group of grandchildren) and THIS is how she treats him/them!!!
I'm speechless. What were his childhood Christmases like? I'm with Kate, and I'm glad you guys can laugh about it now.
Tunnia, that is just awful! I'm not sure what I would do.
I'm not a big fan of re-gifting unless the stuff is brand new and in perfect condition! We got our neighbors a small gift this year (it was new) and they came over last week with PJs for the kids and new tooth brushes which was great and just enough. Then they gave us a plastic store bag with a bunch of stuff in it. A used CD that doesn't work, a platter, a box of truffles, some bath stuff, massage oil and a candle. I now feel bad for getting them anything. It looks like they ran around the house, threw a bunch of stuff in a bag and brought it over because they felt obligated. I'm not being ungrateful, it was just unnecessary and a bit weird.
Tunnia, that is just tooo funny. I'm with you, I would make a game of it and laugh. And laugh and laugh.
Oh, I forgot those gifts would defineately be re-gifted. You need to spread the laughter. I'm still laughing.
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