FF - Best and Worst Gifts Recieved and Given in 2011 - Grand Prairie,TX

Worst gift: foot spa that had been used then repacked. GROSS!

Best gift: $4,000 cash from my MIL because my ten year old was so upset nobody got me anything except her

Best gift I received was a a 48 bottle wine rack for my wine cellar. From my mom. She also got me these nifty tags to put on each bottle so I don't have to pull them out to determine the vintage. Yay!

I don't have a worst gift...

Best gift I gave was iPod touches for both of my boys. They LOVE them! They had begged me for Nintendo DSi's, but these are SOOOOO much better. It's fabulous to only have to buy a game or app once and have it pushed to all my Apple devices.

Worst gift I gave was the "Power House." It's a little house the child builds and then it has experiments about sustainability (solar power, wind power, plant power, etc.)....but it didn't come with directions on how to build the house...just how to do the experiments!

Aw, your poor hubs (I did PRECISELY the same thing to mine last August, I still feel like a jerk).

For me, best gift is a tie between the gel-pro mat hubs got me for the kitchen or the airfare to Miami my mom got me for our trip in a few weeks.

Best gift I gave was hands-down the Xbox with Kinect for my 12 year old. Worst was probably the Vetrinarian game for DS I gave my daughter. She barely looked at it when she opened the gift & I'm sure it still hasn't been played. Swing & a miss on that one.

Worst gift I received? Firming cream and a re-gifted yoga video from my MIL, of course. How do I know it was re-gifted? WE gave it to her. Classy, eh?

Best gift? Beautiful new purse I had my eye one for ages. Yeah!

Best gift I received: a Charmed Memories necklace with all beads picked out entirely by my son.

Worst gift I received: Toss up between a folding insulated bag that fits into another pouch (???) and a can of loose tea and do-it-yourself tea bags--with a cup and saucer.

Best gift I gave: DVD set of all episodes of Combat! (husband's favorite old TV series)

Worst gift I gave: To my non-grab bag siblings -- bag with wine, chocolate covered cherries and mints. :( (I hate not being to be able to buy for EVERYONE when we do a grab bag!)

hm best gift i got was probably my vintage purse from a friend of mine. i so wasn't expecting anything.
best gift i gave well i did send my MIL some gifts from her son (my husband) even though she and i haven't talked in years. i knew my husband was slacking off this year (and every year) so i just went and got her sweaters, shirts, pants etc. well turns out she loved them so much she actually called my husband going ohh and ahhh about everything (color, how he was right on on the sizes etc). interesting enough i know she knows i got those for her. so while i will never talk to her i am glad i did a good thing and made her feel special.
another good gift i did was got lots of small (and one big) presents for a single mom. i had asked who gets her gifts to open on christmas (thinking the ex or her family) and when she said she did for herself to have something to open in front of kids broke my heart. so i had gifts for her to open with her kids. she called me soo happy. so that one was good too.
worse gift? hm i don't even know what it is but looks like a collapsable basket. don't know what i would use it for but heck goes on the what to do pile.
worse gift i got? i never get bad gifts. my joy is making people feel special on christmas and birthdays. i shop and take my time when deciding for a gift for someone.

Best gifts were the yoyos, We are now having yoyo duels. The kids are 10, 14, and 16. That and the post office got my son's package to him on Christmas Eve
Jo, My oldest got one of those helicopters. Our dogs don't now what to do with it.

Worst gift I gave, makeup for my 16 yo. I will turn her into a lady yet!! My 14 yo has already been using hers.

Worst gift was the body buttter from Kmart or Walmart from my SIL. I will never use it.

My 22 yo actually put effort into his gifts this year and got me some of my WInterberry china pieces, the 16 yo some books and the 14 yo a Mother of Pearl necklace surrounded by little diamond chips. Just the fact that he remembered to call me on Christmas was the best gift.

Best gift I gave ~ photo of my niece with her parents... made her cry, but in a good way (I hope).

Worst gift I gave ~ gift cards to a niece and nephew. Why can't people just give me an idea of an actual gift? (They are my stepmom's grandkids and we pretty much see them at Christmas and Thanksgiving. I on't know them well.)

Best gift I received ~ beautiful handcrafted necklace from my MIL, with the word "try" spelled out in the manual alphabet on the back. Probably her not so subtle way of reminding me to step up my game... which I do need to do. I don't usually wear extra jewelry, so I am keeping it with my keys to remind me to put it on before going out (yeah, I need reminders to wear something nice, LOL... try, indeed).

Worst gift I received was a Christmas ornament at the office gift exchange. It's freaking massive. What will I do with one eight inch round ornament? Especially one that is filled with little styrofoam balls that are apparently quit staticky in there, because they are stuck to the ball. Well the answer is that I think it was bought at Sam's Club, so I gave it to a friend who has a membership to return for something more useful or interesting. We figure she'll end up with a piece pizza and maybe a soda, lol.

*ohm* Rant over. :+)

This is just a funny gift story. My 12 year old had a long wish list and my 15 year old had three things on his list, all pretty simple low priced items. The older one needs a new bike this spring because he's outgrown his current bike. So to give him what I thought would be a little more of an exciting Christmas gift we bought him a very nice, high quality bike that could get him through college. We had it under the tree Christmas morning. He comes down the stairs and walks right by it and doesn't bat an eye. It was the last gift he paid attention to. Guess what one of his favorite gifts was? The $20 make your own homemade rootbeer kit I picked up on a whim. He has made the rootbeer already and I just went online to order refills. We might be exchanging the bike. (-:

Oh gosh...I don't think I got anything I don't like!

My husband upgraded my wedding band and got me an anniversary band for our anniversary. For Christmas he got me a KitchenAid stand mixer, a Keurig machine, a gold chain so I can wear the diamond pendant he got me last anniversary (the old chain broke), perfume, a new purse, clothes, etc.

My kids helped pick most of it out :).

Best gift I gave for hubs was his new set of golf clubs :).

The kids got almost everything they wanted, so all of it.

Outside of my hubby and kids - we got my parents a generator for Christmas. I'm so glad they don't have to worry about power going out and their crawl space flooding anymore!!

Worst gift - from a co worker a calendar with pictures of flowers she took herself. I already have 3 calendars and I can't even write on this one b/c it's so small
Best gift - bracelet and really nice shirt from my husband
Worst gift I gave - hmmmm, probably to my husband! They were such lame gifts but he's so hard to shop for!
Best gift I gave - all the gifts to my kids. They love all of them! Big hits.

I was happy with what my husband got me, because I picked out items from a catalog and he just went off of that - so I got exactly what I wanted! Some wooden plaques with inspirational messages on them to put up around the house, a paua shell ring, a African paper mache bead bracelet, and another bracelet made from gold beads and recycled piano wires - very cool!

Christmas gift package from MIL was disappointing as usual - she doesn't have much money, which is fine, but I almost wish she wouldn't bother. She could save the money and not get us anything and I would be okay with that. Instead I got another notepad and a packet of generic ballpoint pens. Hubby got a wool winter hat with "New England Patriots - AFC Conference Champions 2007" on it. DD is 4 and her gifts included a 3 pack of underpants and a 3 pack of undershirts, with "Slightly Imperfect" labels on the packaging. Her gifts are always things that she thinks are useful and practical, but are so cheap that it's not like we can't buy these things ourselves if we have to. Once in a while she gets on a towel kick, and we all end up with beach towels, kitchen towels, etc. Last year DD got a toddler bowl, plate, fork, spoon and cup set. She used to give my stepsons (her grandsons) socks and underwear but would split a 6 pack of each between the 2 of them. She finally stopped doing that when they were 12 and instead gets them cheesy t-shirts. When they were 13 and 14 she said at Thanksgiving dinner she wasn't sure what to get them for Christmas because they were getting too old for toys - I was like, "You never get them toys! When have you ever gotten them toys? Why worry about it now?"

One year my SIL got me one of those wooden faces you hang on the side of a tree to make it look like there is a face on the tree. I guess she thought it was pretty funny but I hated it. I would not put it on our tree because it just creeped me out.

I was happy that I was able to give DH and DD most of the items on their list - certain toys and games for DD (she seems most happy with her unicorn pillow pet, because it's "exactly what I wanted!"), a nice bottle of scotch for DH.

My best gift given to me was an authentic Louis Vitton handbag and brand new Asic tennis shoes (they're the best)

Best gift for my kids was all hello kitty and cars related toys.

Worst gift - my SIL gave me a hearts themed pancake gift set with heart shape cutouts and heart shaped spatula.....hmmmm. It's the thought that counts :)

Worst gift I gave...Well see my post from a few days ago. I gave cheap wine to my bosses. I have since corrected my faux pas! LOL

Great question and your last point made me laugh! hee.hee.

not mine, but here's a good one for you - my 20 year old (college student/working ft, broke) brother, drew my SIL's name for christmas. our family limit is $50 per person. guess what he got her?

a christmas mug and a pack of cigarettes.

hahaha! i still think it's hilarious - last year, with the same limit, she bought me a $20 walmart robe- which i happened to be quite happy with tyvm, but still, i make an effort to reach the limit or close to, every year, so it just kind of struck me at the time. a couple days after we opened christmas presents i was in walmart and saw it...19.99. nice. (no, money is not an issue with them!)

anyway...this year my little brother drew her name (and no, i hadn't said a word about what she got me last year, this wasn't us ganging up on her i swear!) and that's what he came up with, his poor sorry broke butt! my mom sent him back into town with her credit card lol. i think she ended up with an Olive Garden gift card or something to go with it.

i will one day laugh so hard at him for that...

but he was pretty embarrassed at how broke he is lol. so right now it'd just be mean :P

best gift? not sure. i got great gifts from everyone. and i think that everyone (besides my poor SIL) got great gifts too, from me and others. really the only one that stuck out was that one.

OH my mom got me the red peacoat i had my eye on for months - AND finished the home-crocheted afghan she's been working on for me for about 6 months...but neither of those were "christmas" presents (because we draw names you know, and she didn't get my name! lol) those were just "i love you daughter" presents. even better imo! :)

Best gift received: electric blanket (no more cold feet for me!)
Best gift given: Housewarming gift for hubby--a new chainsaw!

Worst gift received: the gift card to Barnes & Noble that hubby lost! (I was going to buy the new Dean Koontz book this week!)
Worst gift given: Bucket of popcorn (really, what can you get for a person who has "everything"??)

I really love picking out gifts for people, but it sure would be easier (and more enjoyable) if money grew on trees!

We were all very targeted on gifts this year so I can't think of a bad one in either category.

The best I gave would probably go to the helicopter I gave Genna and Troy, though the cat would disagree. :p

Every gift I got was perfect, I can't come up with one. Sorry.