buy the kid some glitter or day-glo paints. make it unique.
If you click on “List Actions” and choose “Save an Idea”, you can add general guidelines (“blue socks”; “a good non-fiction book”, etc.) to your Amazon Wish List. If you fill your wish list up that way, people would have to put a little more thought into their gifts.
OTOH, I put exactly what I want on my wish list, get exactly what I list, and therefore have nothing to bitch about. Even the gifts that weren’t strictly off the list were things I would have wanted.
Also, we celebrate Chanukah, which means that socks are almost a requirement. We all give them, we all get them, and we all like them. 
I didn’t really get any shitty gifts. I got an external hard drive that seems to have a dying controller, but I think I can fix that, and the fact that these people who aren’t rich thought to give me something like this, even if used, is still a blessing.
No, the shitty thing I got wasn’t a gift, but it did happen Christmas Eve. I finally had the time to stop and let the December Windows updates go through. And they failed to install properly, and the System Restore point before hand failed. Now my Windows installation is hosed.
I’m typing this from a LiveCD Linux, which I luckily had just finished burning and setting up for my mom’s donated computer without a hard drive. I use it between trying different methods to fix Windows.
I also got chocolate from someone who knows I don’t eat chocolate, but I’ve learned my lesson complaining about food gifts around here.
Ah, I completely forgot about that. No bad gifts from friends or family, but the three co-workers who gave me gifts all gave me chocolate, which I don’t eat. I just donated it to the counter filled with tasty office gifts, so I’m sure it will be enjoyed.
Hang it over the toilet, so he has to look at it every time he visits?
Out of curiosity, was it 7 or 8.1? (I have 8.1; I haven’t installed for December.)
That damn jug weighs 10 lbs! They shipped us 10 lbs. of salt and sand like it was a delicacy from the old country. We have Menards here, too–why not a gift card which would have cost pennies to mail? I don’t get it.
The jug of water will probably be next year. Because everyone needs water, so that makes a great gift.
My in-laws gave us a quarter of a cow. I thought it was an awesome gift! 150 pounds of meat is pretty generous, IMHO, and very useful.
We’re having Christmas tomorrow, so I may be back in a few hours…
It took me several years finally to get through to Mr Boods and to my best friend that my Amazon wish list was how I kept track of books I needed/wanted to get the uni library to order for my classes, and not stuff that I myself personally wanted.
Meanwhile, despite knowing me for almost 35 years, same said best friend spent a hell of a lot of money on blue ray discs (I don’t have a BR player) of television shows and films-based-ff-tv shows that I would gladly, instead, gouge out my own eyes with a dull spoon then to ever watch (eg the entire oeuvre of Joss Whedon, among other things).
I got a gift that I was very pleased to receive but that turned out to have a dark side. It’s a beautiful, thick, fluffy, warm, maroon bathrobe.
It sheds maroon lint everywhere. Before I realized that it was doing this I threw it in with a load of wash (I like to wash new things before wearing them the first time). I didn’t notice when I moved the laundry from the washer to the dryer, but when I took everything out of the dryer I discovered that everything was covered with a combination of big clumps of maroon lint and, the worst part, a fine maroon dust that does not brush off easily.
Fortunately, rewashing and drying everything again, without the robe this time, mostly solved the problem. There were still some clumps of lint, easily picked off, but the dust was gone.
Now I’m noticing maroon lint all over my house. Anyplace I’ve sat while wearing it is covered with it. I’m hoping that I can eliminate the problem with another wash dry cycle for the robe by itself, but I have to wonder if the thing is disintegrating.
Hah, actually I don’t like the sound of yours either. Luckily, I have a gift receipt, so I think I’ll exchange it for an actual blanket. I can use that.
A bottle of chocolate flavored ale from some micro brewery, with a gasp Drinking Glass.
<sigh>
got ya all beat -
Now, this was from my wife. And she also bought me a new crockpot too. I do 99% of the cooking.
Yes, it’s a joke, and I can’t imagine that it will work and we have a good pizza cutter already.
I wonder how long I have to keep this… thing.
My wife and I got colds.
This may be too late to do you any good, but you can have a private Amazon wishlist that only you can view. I have a public Christmas/birthday wishlist for people who want to buy me gifts, but keep a private list for things I’m considering getting for myself, like supplies for craft projects.
Until you use it as toe nail clippers.
BTW- Don’t you wish you’d gotten socks instead?
My brother-in-law was pretty generous this year, sold some poor dumb putz a 2013 Mazda3 Sport Sedan.
Are they still wrapped in plastic? Amazon has a nice trade-in program, with slightly more money given for products in good/original packaging.
I’ll take it! I’ll trade you for a book of football trivia.
Book would be a lot smaller if it was just the stuff that wasn’t trivial.
Sigh. I am an ungrateful bitch, I know. But what the hell is it with the baby clothes? We are drowning in baby clothes! Stop buying us baby clothes!