Odd gifts from mom that make your eyes roll...

My husband’s mother sends him (and his brother and sisters) rubber spatulas for just about every special occasion. We have enough rubber spatulas to last us the next 50 years at least (and, yes, I have given some of them away.) Occasionally, she’ll change it up with wooden spoons. I once asked my sister-in-law (after showing her my “rubber spatula collection” drawer in my new house, and she admitted to having a similar drawer) "Uh, your mom does know that you can wash these and use them more than once, right? They still keep coming, though.

She also gives all of us “naughty” kids and kids-in-law huge white men’s gym socks at Christmastime while singing the following song:

I’ve got lots of presents and toys
For all the good little girls and boys
You got…you got…
SOCKS!

This might be great for the guys, but I give mine to my husband–I suspect that his unmarried sisters give theirs to Dad. You know what’s worse than socks for Christmas? Socks that don’t fit!

Talk about a great username though!

The Christmas after my parents divorced my mother was extremely short on cash. Me and my brothers got a 6 pack of tube socks and my sisters some new underwear. That was it. My dad gave each of us 6 kids a brand new $20 bill for that Christmas. Then he deducted the $120 from his next child support check. My mother was (and now is) an angel, my father is still an asshole.

The tomato red shirts she would buy me always made me cringe. The color looks bad on me, and the clothing she bought in it always looked nasty.

My sister gave us a colander. I’m still hoping she’ll get married one day so I can give her something just as good.

Ouch. That hurts. On the other hand, one of my grandmothers spent my entire childhood collecting the little toys from cereal boxes all year long so she could wrap them up and send those off as Chiristmas presents. You want to guess what a 7 year old thinks about his gramma when he unwraps the same toy he just dug out of the Cherios box yesterday? I mean I understand now (sort of) - depression era person, and all that. But come on.

Hmmm… good point… I’ve been thinking about changing my username anyway …EvilDuck… hmmm, has possibilities

My darling, adorable, but slightly kooky mother-out-law (the Raven’s mother) indulged her providing instinct by bringing us a big box of goodies one day.

Two bags of cookies (wow! thanks!)
Half a bag of pretzels (still fresh…we ate those too)
And…

Well, I should mention that we live in an apartment that is approximately 500 square feet. If you get to count the closets, the bathroom, the space outside the front door, and the parking spot, that is. And this tiny little nest holds me, the Raven, and our two extremely active cats.

The third thing in the box was…TWENTY-ONE crystal goblets. (“I was cleaning out my cabinets and thought you might like these, since I’m not using them.”) Suitable for drinking…uh, well, wine or something. Neither the Raven nor I drink wine, and they’re too fragile to make gelatin in or anything. They were too tall for our glass space in the kitchen, and would have taken up half the space we had for pans in the other cabinet. I finally found a spot over the stairs on a narrow ledge for a baker’s dozen and crammed the other eight in the back behind the rice cooker.

Course, I’ve probably been softened up by my family giving me stuff over the years…let’s see. The bright pink chenille robe…the double-knit jacket…the t-shirt with the pony-beaded fringe…heck, I wear it all (not at once)…secure in the knowledge that anyone who sees me will think “There’s a woman who’s wearing something her granny made her.” (Especially if they know me and know that I only wear dark blue and gray otherwise.)

Oh, and I’m 27…last year, I ASKED for socks for Christmas. I was running low. I got purple-striped ones! Now, where do I find this musical Garfield underwear? Socks and underwear were never so cool when I was little. :wink:

Corr
“What’s that sound?” “Oh, it’s my panties. Wanna see 'em?”