What the Folk!

I'm going to do it at least 8 more times.

lol why dont you just make a bunch of copies with a blank where the name should be and hand write it in before handing it over....and have a voicemail like recording of you reading it

vmh, if the Furbies really talked and said things like that, I'd buy them!

My worst present was from my MIL. I don't remember if it was our first Christmas together or the next but it was a hideous painting of a clown that she'd obviously gotten at a thrift shop and painted her initials on, directly over the real artist's. (She writes on EVERY single thing she gives to any of us.....toys, jewelry, stuffed animals- whatever. She is compelled to write on it.) Then a basket of soaps that was wrapped in plastic, looked 10 years old, and had dust and hair on it. I know it came off the back of the toilet....I know it.

At the time, I thought this was a thinly-veiled insult but after 23 years, I know this is just her. She's bi-polar and just in the past year has gotten much sweeter- without meds, strangely enough.

She came to the hospital the day Jacob was born to give us a piggy bank she'd "made" for him. It was a styrofoam cup with a lid that she'd sliced a slot into. It looked like she'd painted the sides of it with sparkly nail polish and there was a sticky residue in the bottom of the cup. She'd also made a "plaque" out of the white foam bottom from when you buy ground beef. I was pretty horrified at that one.

We have tried for years and years to get her help but she refuses and says "I'm not crazy..." and I say "No, you aren't. You have a condition that's no different from my hypothyroidism and you need to be on medication for it." But she always refused. We never knew if we'd get fast-talking, manic happy mil or the slooooow talking, blank stare, super-negative one.

Recently though...big change. I hope it lasts, it's been nice. She even gave me a music box that plays What a Wonderful World. We call each other frequently and I've been taking her to Veteran's to try and get her some money.

meat tray plaque? You win Laura...hands down

Im going to die of laughter if we get some new girl in here posting in this thread about a "10 things I like about so and so" book she got from her ex boyfriend....

CJ, Stray, you guys slay me!

Laura, I agree with CJ - you win with the meat tray, for sure. Hope she stays as nice as she's been recently.

Me reading this whole thread ---->

Hmm, I can't really think of any truly horrible presents I've ever gotten...I've been pretty lucky. I'll have to think about this one.

Hahaha, I'd die too, probably more of shame and embarrassment though.

awww..there there ......there there there ...Id still laugh though

I was a vegetarian for about 10 years starting when I was 13. One of the many reasons why I was a veggie was because of cruelty to animals. I'm also sooooo not a stuffed animal person. I never have been, it's just totally not my things. Well for Christmas one year my aunt send me this "special" present. I'm supposed to open it last and my mom is supposed to hold the camera up and take a picture right as I open it. I kid you not, it was a teddy bear made of baby seal fur.

Evidently my great grandmother had several fur coats and my aunt, knowing that nobody would probably ever wear them, had teddy bears made for us girls. My cousins got the mink and fox and I got the baby seal. Seriously. I refused to touch it. My mom set it on my lap and made my smile so she could send a picture to my aunt but you can see that the smile was excruciating. My mom has had it in the back of a glass cabinet for the last 15 years and I don't have to look at it.

That is truly horrible, Em!

Even though I've gone back to eating meat etc. The things still totally disgusts me. I can't not think about baby seals being clubbed over the head for their fur.

Y'all are killing me

The worst has to be a ceramic chicken (the chicken was white and sitting on a nest and worked like a covered bowl...) that contained avon deoderant and $5 ... me and my sister got the same thing. We were in elementary school at the time. It was from an evil step-grandma who did not really 'get' anyone under 35. (later found out the fiver was from my grandpa who took pity on us ) I would like to think she spaced and just grabbed crap at her house; but that would not explain why she had 2

BTW: WTF are you supposed to do with a ceramic chicken... in elementary school ?

This is just kind of a very sad gift.

I found the same kind of funky vintage flannel that's on my kitchen chairs (vintage ones covered with that and boat vinyl done by a local artist), several yards of that. My mom insisted that she wanted to make it into pajamas for me.

I said I'd rather have a local friend do it because she could fit me better. She insisted. I picked out a plus-size pattern. She picked out one that just went to size 18 and insisted that she could make them big enough. She measured me. I told her if she didn't think she could make them, to please just send the flannel back to me.

I got them. They were at least 3 sizes too small. And there wasn't enough flannel left to make anything else. All I could say was "they don't fit, but thanks anyway mom. I'm sure someone else will be able to wear them."

Ugh. I really appreciated my mom wanting to make them for me, but....eh. That's our relationship in a nutshell.

Why pass it along to your teacher of course!

MM.....