White Elephant Gifts

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I think that’s the correct terms…gifts which are nice, but require an extra expenditure in order for you to enjoy.

Several years ago my in-laws gave us a pool. As in, an above ground pool with pump. It takes quite a bit to set up and install, including purchasing a truckload of sand, and it’s still sitting in the garage in its box. Ivylad and I just don’t have the wherewithal to set it up.

This weekend Ivylad’s mother bought him a wheelchair. This is apparently a $5400 wheelchair that her neighbors bought for their father, but he died before he could use it. It’s a very nice motorized wheelchair, but it weighs 200 pounds and we have no way to transport it. We have to buy one of those thingies to put on the back of your car. Set aside the fact that Ivylayd is mentally unwilling to admit he’s getting to the point where he might have to start using it on a regular basis…and it’s one of those, “Oh, how nice!” gifts.

My father gave me an ivy lampshade several years ago, and I never got around to buying a lamp for it. I think he got a bit fed up waiting, because he did eventually get me a lamp for it.

2

I received tickets to a sporting event as a gift. Now this is actually something I’d like to go see, however it takes place over an hour away. On a school night.

3

I gotta kid.
Let’s talk about “extra expenditures…”

4

One year my parents gave us a DVD player. Unfortunately our tv was so old as to be uncompatible. So we had to get a new one, but that one was defective. So we took it back and got another one (same model). We figured out the model was defective. So we took it back and got another one. We also needed a stupid $20 cord to connect everything. Then the tv stand was too small, so we got a new one of those, too.
Stupid DVD player.

5

In the recent SD White Elephant exchange, I received a picture of Pope John Paul II. I’m religious but not really the type to hang a picture of Popes on my wall, so I decided to hide it somewhere my atheist room-mate would find it. He found it in a few days, and then hid it my room in turn. Whenever we find it, we point and say “Pope” in a drawn-out kinda silly voice. It’s become great fun.