Worst gift received - FESS UP!

[Willy Wonka]

I'm lucky this year. All donations to ACLU in my honor.. :evilgrin:

[intheflow]

1. My boss gave me the same book he gave me last year.

Thankfully he didn't write anything in it this year so I can return it!

Kudos on the ACLU donations! :thumbsup:

[aquaman]

2. Just curious,

what book???

[intheflow]

3. "Uh-Oh" by Robert Fulghum.

The same author wrote All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

amazon.com has it listed here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804111898/qid=1104045130/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_10/002-0749412-4233648?v=glance&s=books

New and used, starting at $0.01! A bargain for sure!

You'd think if someone was going to give a book twice, it would at least be a great book. This one is mediocre at best.

[CanuckAmok]

6. yeah, but two more copies and you can raise a table with it!

Only 364 shopping days until Christmas '05!

[Kire]

9. the management department of your company probably had sales people

make a presentation to your boss

or not

[MissBrooks]

27. Do you think he "re-gifted" it?

[intheflow]

29. Maybe.

Fulghum was a UU minister for a while, my boss now is a UU minister. It's possible that's he's been innundated with Fulghum books from parishioners for decades now.

I hope this isn't foreshadowing a lifetime of Fulghum books from parishioners when I get hired by a church! LOL!

[radfringe]

11. our production manager

donates money out of his own pocket to buy presents for everyone at work..

unfortunately he doesn't do the shopping -- he gives the money to the "grue-some twosome" and has them do the shopping.

well, you know where you stand on their list by the "gifts" they select for you. Most of the guys received Sport Team hats, sweathirts, t-shirts or fishing/hunting gear.

the receptionist and I each received a "snowman night light" - plastic, by coincidence I has seen them in a "dollar store" the week before going for 2 for $5.00.

it's not the cost of the present that gets my bloomers in a twist -- it's that there was no thought behind the gift - it was hey lets buy some piece crap and stick a bow on it...

the receptionist and I "donated" our lights to help out the hallway -- there is now one nightlight flanking the hallway by each of the gruesome twosome's offices...

by the way -- what did the gruesome twosome buy for themselves as gifts? One got herself a new pocketbook, the other bought a carved angel -- and you can bet they didn't pay 2 for $5 for them

[intheflow]

13. I'm pretty sure my boss's wife buys the gifts.

And your story reminded me about when I worked at an insurance agency many years ago. It was a patriarchal family business, and every Secretary's Day he would be sure to get flowers for all the female workers in the place, not just the secretaries. The old dofus just didn't get it when comptroller, office manager, IT director, and agents got upset at being lumped in with the secretaries! D'oh! :D

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. I am a teacher

Two years ago, right after our supt had been hired, we all got coffee cups with the district logo on them. Then last year, we got an apple. This year, we got a letter saying we are appreciated and Merry Christmas.

I want a new supt so I can get a nice gift again.

[katinmn]

40. I once received Billy Graham's book three years in a row

from my ex's grandmother, Stella, in Missouri.
It was called "on the wings of angels" or something like that.

She was in her 90s, sharp as a tack and still doing other peoples' taxes. Could have been an oversight.

[LibDemAlways]

4. A lifelong friend gave me

a bizarre doorknob decorative hanging thing with a tassle that's supposed to bring "good energy." The only energy associated with it thus far is that spent thinking about why she gave me something she probably got stuck with in a "white elephant" gift exchange last year.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. Since you asked....

Do I win anything?

[samplegirl]

7. lol

did it come with step by step instructions????????

[Miami Liberal]

8. That's too funny!

[RadicalMom]

10. Can I answer a slightly different question? Namely, the worst

Christmas gift I EVER received: A kleenex box cover made like this: on the front was a molded plastic doll face, the size of the front of the box. The top of the box was covered in blonde "hair" done up in a high piled up beehive hairdo of curls. (I hope you didn't just eat.) A slot was cut through that to allow the kleenex to stick through. My future mother-in-law gave this to me in all seriousness. She had a hairdo exactly like this from the time they came into fashion in the fifties till the day she died a few years ago. Her hairdresser had made these "adorable" craft items to sell to her clients, so she bought one for me. I kept it hidden for about a year, and when my husband and I moved out of the art studio we were renting, we slipped it into the scary furnace room in the building, next to the furnace in a dark corner, to await some poor unsuspecting future tenant.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. We got the WORST CANDY EVER.

[Must_B_Free]

26. what kind is it & what does it taste like?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

33. They're chocolates and they have the weirdest tasting pastes and stuff

inside of them.

Didn't think you could really screw up chocolate.

[XNASA]

14. Instant Chili in a Box.

I'm fricking insulted that my brother-in-law and his wife would sent me instant anything.

I'm an excellent cook.

Instant Chili my ass.

[mr blur]

15. My best friend

with whom I'd shared a flat, written songs and played in a band with, was best man at his wedding and he at mine, once gave me a beer-making kit. I don't drink. In all that time he'd never seen me with a drink in my hand. I was too stunned to say anything else but "Thanks".

[Willy Wonka]

16. Kick for the evening crew

(sorry for the late kick. I just got home)

[LuCifer]

17. the electronic version of Battleship!!!!!

It sits in my dad's shed to this very day, and I got it approx. 15 years ago! I'll take the original version ANYDAY...only if I am REALLLLLY booooored!

Lu Cifer, and to think...I could have got a NINTENDO instead!

[Endangered Specie]

18. $20 gift certificate to a fundamentalist book store.

and I mean fundamentalist, not mainstream whatsoever.

[Red State Rebel]

34. You may be in luck....

www.swapagift.com

[readmylips]

19. Franklin Graham's book...

Just got home and opened my gifts. My rich sister-in-law, two years ago gave me two kitchen towels. This year she gave me Franklin Graham's book....whatever the title is. It's a hell and fire kkkristian book. My hubby used it to start the fire place, burned into ashes.

[Maat]

20. I sure like that response on the part of your husband, Readmylips.

That's too great! LOL!

[readmylips]

21. I'm Catholic and would never....

send anyone in my family a rosary. My hub was raised Methodist but doesn't follow any religion, but he is a good person with a good heart.

His sisters are lunatics. They believe what the bible says word by word.

[Dorian Gray]

38. I got people rosaries as a gift once,

but not for Christmas. I was at the Vatican, and I was able to get them blessed while out there. So, I brought them back for my three religious aunts. They loved them. (I wouldn't impose them on anyone who I didn't think would like them at all.)

[neebob]

22. Mine might arrive tomorrow or Tuesday

from Grandma Neebob. She told me to expect a box with a few things, and since learning what she gave my kid, I'll be surprised if she didn't pick out a swell B.O. book for me. Or maybe I'll get a Hannity or a Coulter, since I specifically told her not to send me O'Reilly's book.

[Maat]

25. For some twenty-odd years...

I would get clothes that didn't fit me ... and that I wouldn't wear if they were the last thing I owned ... from certain relatives who shall remain nameless.

I specifically told them I didn't want any religious right books.

[neebob]

28. My mom seems to think I like pink tops with big flowers

and native American designs and lace and things like that on them. I guess she's never noticed that I only wear plain black, navy, or dark brown clothing with the occasional plain white shirt. Or perhaps she thinks these pink prints would go with my long, straight hair. Or my ONE PAIR of plain gold hoop earrings. Or the necklace I don't own.

You'd think I look like Dolly Parton or somebody, considering the clothes she picks out for me.

[Massacure]

23. My family gave me a cold.

:puke:

[catbert836]

24. Assorted Jerkeys and Cheeses

Me and my father got it as a joke for my brother. It was hilarious when he opened it (He's a vegetarian)

[asthmaticeog]

30. a Lewis Grizzard book-on-cassette.

Title: "Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself." Har dee har har.

Not only do I fucking hate Lewis Grizzard, I don't have a tape deck anymore.

[ironflange]

32. Not me, but Mrs. Ironflange

A couple of years ago, a relative who is notorious for giving really bad gifts gave her a gift certificate for a facial. She was plenty pissed off.

[bleedingheart]

35. The "fat-angel" statue

made of balsa wood, it was a piece of art that was cut to look like a rather volumptuous woman with a huge ass and thighs...but wait...the artist put wings on it and decorated it rather oddly...

the art in itself wasn't the bad part as much the comment my mother-in-law made... "I saw this and thought about your fat ass and thought it would be appropriate"....ah...such tact.


But wait...one year she gave me free jello molds she had received when she bought jello...

But wait...she re-gifted a gorgeous coffee table book on Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater that my husband had given his dad....

But wait... the funniest piece of crap...Thalidabear...the stuffed animal she made for my son that was supposed to be a teddy bear...one limb was no bigger than my pinky finger ...while an opposing limb was as big as my shoe...I know the name is cruel...but it was the nickname my bro-in-law gave it...and it stuck...

[Patiod]

36. My SO got $3.25 cookies as a bonus from his boss this year

She shipped a shoebox sized box to the company (she works from her home), and when they opened it, there were 3 cookie-boxes in it - one for each of the salespeople.

They had an email address on them, so they of course went to the website and found out that these cookie-boxes were the least-expensive item offered by the website, at $3.25 each.

this from someone who could afford much better.

[Dorian Gray]

37. Oh, my god...

My husband's drunk of a sister got me THREE BELTS with huge, Rhinestone Buckles. Yep, Merry Christmas! Can't wait to wear those. Not one, but THREE!

I don't even want to donate them to The Salvation Army or Goodwill because I don't know who would wear them. A coked up cowgirl in NYC?

My MIL does all her shopping on QVC. So, I also got some interesting sweaters with huge prints on the back and some rhinestone decor. (Seriously, I live in NYC, and there is NOTHING about me that is COWGIRLISH.) I hate when people get me clothing because I'm somewhat particular about what I like. I like very basic things. Fleeces, sweats, etc. For any "fashionable" clothing, I will buy it myself. I have a sort of city/chic/hippy look going on with my going out clothing and my work clothing, and I don't usually shop at QVC. And I wouldn't mind the QVC if it was just a plain sweater. But the QVC brand sweater with the "Colonial" print and Rhinestones just doesn't do it for me!

Sorry for the rant. I just hate when people buy you things that they might wear themselves with no thought into what you might like. And, I love candles, bath products (soaps, bubble baths, bath salts, etc.), and world teas, so I'm not THAT difficult to buy for! If I got a Christmas Tree scented candle, I'd be on the moon!

(Luckily, my husband bought me some really nice bath salts, soaps, and stuff, so he didn't get his taste from his mom or sister!)

[Touchdown]

39. An oil warmer (dipstick with a electric cord)

Mom even wrapped it up. Wasn't even bundled with the snow chains she also wrapped. :eyes:

This from a woman who threw a coniption fit for getting a crock pot one year when I was a kid.

[katinmn]

41. wow, cool invention, though.

[prole_for_peace]

42. A few years ago my mom got me a contour bathroom rug.

Just one piece (the cheapest one) of the set I wanted. I had to buy the other two rugs myself.

This year she gave me thermal underwear. We live in SE Texas and the coldest it ever gets is maybe a few degrees below freezing. And I love the cold weather so it just doesn't make any sense.