Inspired by the worst Christmas gifts thread.
What is the gift that you or someone in your family got that was a real sleeper? It looked like it was gonna totally suck and it turned out to be a winner.
Our first Christmas together, my mother gave SWMBO a log in a bunch of dirt. :eek:
Turned out it was a Shitake mushroom farm. We harvested some great mushrooms off that log - good eatin’s!!
My wife surprised me with a lovely new guitar, a Taylor 714CE, seven years ago and I’ve played it nearly every day since.
My husband surprised me with an iPod a couple of (four?) Christmases ago, and I played it nearly every day after that. That is, until I washed it in a fit of late night stupidity. 
My daughter gave me an ereader last year. I thought that I’d hate it. Now that thing goes everywhere with me, though. I still buy dead tree books, but the nook is SOOOO convenient.
I got my wife a 2011 GMC Terrain last year.
She had hinted she liked them, and I got a nice bonus at work, so I covertly purchased it. Later we “just happened” to be driving by the dealership, and I said. “let’s test drive one, just for fun”. After the drive, I looked at her, said “You like?” she said “Yup”. I looked at the salesperson, said, “I’ll take it”, and he tossed me the keys, which I handed to her. Then I got up to leave. “Aren’t we gonna pay for it?” she asked. “Nope. Did that last week” was my reply.
After the playful beating she made me take all the crap out of her car (trade in) while she ooo’d and ahhh’d over her new toy.
I was gonna do the bow thing on Xmas Day, but bought it too early to wait for that particular day.