Thats the best excuse for giving someone a rock, ever. I got a card with a picture of my aunts dog on it.
Oh, I love it, too – it was just an … odd gift. Like getting a can of beans or a single spatula.
It’s certainly no rock, though…
They Might Be Giants says everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around.
I got dirt from my 3-year-old niece. You should have seen how excited she was when I opened the package, too. “It’s dirt!” There were also some spring bulbs in a pot underneath the bag of dirt, but that was apparently her grandma’s idea, and the dirt was hers. I couldn’t help but be excited about the dirt as well.
You know, if my MIL gave me a rock, she might find it suddenly returned to her, flying through the air towards her head at a high rate of speed.
Just sayin’.
A rock. Oy!
Ok, that’s just too cute. I’d have to take a picture of that and show it to her when she’s about 18.
My mother (going directly against my request for no more ‘stuff’) found me a large picture mirror for my front hall in a beautifully painted and varnished wooden frame. The reason this was so cool is that the frame has saloon-style doors on it, in the shape of two cats cuddling. When the doors are opened, you have these colourful dali-esque cats bookending the mirror. I love it.
I got Dobie scouring pads, windshield washer solvent, 60 watt light bulbs, AA batteries, Bounty paper towels, two rubber spatulas (!) and some loose leaf tea.
I gave: AAA batteries, 100 watt light bulbs, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Scott toilet paper, 409 and Windex sprays, canned olives, flour sack towels, dish washing soap, Zest bar soap, cream of mushroom soup, and Dobie scouring pads. Clearly, one cannot have enough scouring pads.
There was other stuff, too, but I can’t remember it all. We had a great time. And none of it will be returned. I might regift one of the rubber spatulas next year. 
I literally have tears streaming down my face right now. The rock started the laughter going, but this is the post that sent me over the edge. A flying alarm clock. Oh heavens, I am one lucky girl this Christmas. The weirdest thing I got was a Pocket Buddha, and I rather like it.
Someone just came into my office and gave me a box with four cocktail glasses and a book of recipes for pousse-cafes.
Mention once that you use to drink pousse-cafes 25 years ago and people remember.
My husband is allergic to many foods. One time he went to a traditional feast at his grandparents, and he was allergic to everything but the shrimp. Now every time he comes over to see Grandma and Grandpa, he gets shrimp of every persuasion. Much easier for them than actually remembering all his allergies. They are so proud of themselves for remembering, too. It’s funny how people latch onto things.
I love olives, but my husband hates them and can’t stand the smell of them. Needless to say, we don’t buy olives very often. 
For the last couple of years, he’s put a jar of olives in my stocking at Christmas. This year, I had two jars of olives - Tangueray Garlic Olives (yum!) and Tangueray lime olives (bleech!).
BTW, I looked them up online and anyone paying $28.95 for these olives is getting ripped off. He got these at TJ Maxx and they didn’t cost anywhere close to that.
I’d say it’s a tie between my panini press and my book.
My brother got me a book by Jeremy Clarkson, which is apparently standard fare in the UK, but over here you have to look really, really hard for. Looking forward to reading that. (I know I can’t buy any of the cars; don’t care!)
The “panini press” as my brother tactfully called it is actually my gift from the office xmas party that I finally opened, and is of the Sesame Street variety. I plan to take it to my new office, where its ability to toast either Elmo or Cookie Monster on to all lunchtime sandwiches will be well appreciated. 
That flying alarm clock sounds hilariously infuriating. I would turn up every morning grumpy but on time.
My MIL got me all six Star Trek TOS movies on videotape. I appreciate the gesture, but I’d told everyone I wanted clothing store gift cards this year so I could do some shopping. She did give me cash, which I appreciate, but I wish she hadn’t wasted her money on the Star Trek movies.
I got a very useful DIY manual
I haven’t really got anything to add (except my Nan getting me two bottles of the same aftershave, when I still have half a bottle left from last year), but I must object to you calling these films a waste of money. Unless you’ve got 6 copies of Nemesis there’s no way you can call those brilliant films a waste of money.:mad:
I have encouraged my mom to follow her inclination not to shop and to skip all presents, but she somehow feels that it wouldn’t be Christmas if she didn’t give us stockings full of cheap, useless crap. Really thin, drug-store knee-highs, for example. A packet of powdered stir-fry seasoning. Basically, things we will never, ever use. She gives me daughter girly clothing and flowered items, despite knowing that my daughter is a huge tomboy. And she also gave my husband the most hideous sweater I’ve seen since Cliff Huxtable, in a size larger than he wears.
I really hope she listens to me next year when I say, “I know how much you hate shopping, so please make it easy on yourself and skip it.”
5 tiny bottles of scented hand sanitizer. “Interesting” (“bizarre” might be a better word for it) in the way it was presented to me, by my sister, whom I consider my best friend and who I thought knows me better than anyone else in the world does.
When I opened the bag and looked in, she said (I swear), “I know how much you like to wash your hands.” It was weird.
She also gave me some cool lounge socks and a terrific throw for my couch, so she’s still awesome, but really? “I know how much you like to wash your hands”?
I was going to say, it sounds like the giver thinks the recipient sucks at getting to work on time.
This is from a previous year since all is well this year: My husband gave one of his sisters a “wish list” of suggested presents, and one (the hardest one to get, really) was a particular pair of shoes. Brand, size, color, style. She picked the shoes as his present, and got the brand right. Wrong style, wrong color - wrong size by a half-size. Who the hell buys the wrong size shoe knowingly?! It was a bit of a struggle to get a receipt.
She has a very “oh that’s good enough” attitude about things for others, but heaven forbid you screw up a particular request of hers. A couple years ago he got a list of hers, and we went to a nice department store to get her particular pick of moisturizer. Let’s say her list said “Chichi Brand All-Day Luminizing Moisturizer.” We went to the store and saw they had “Chichi Brand All-Day Luminizing Moisturizer Lotion” and grabbed it. No, somehow we were supposed to psychically know that she wanted the “CBA-DLM Creme,” and heard a fair amount of criticism and denial over it.
My wife got a lovely set of pajamas from my Aunt, who’s pushing 80, they were the ones my wife got for her!!! lol. Talk about bringing re-gifting to a whole new level!!! lol
See, that’s just tacky. I vent here about how awful my Mom’s gifts are, but I would never say anything to her face. If she insists on doing all of her Christmas Shopping at Building 19 (No, really, as mentioned in this thread, she leaves the tags on), then I’m pretty much forced to pitch just about everything she gives me (or donate usable-but-hideous things like the sweater), but I know that’s just her and I don’t want to insult her.
