Worst / Best Gifts Ever Received

Reading the "registry" debate made me think about what have been my favorite and all-time least favorite gifts (not necessarily wedding), so I thought I'd see what everyone else had to say.

My FAVORITE gift ever is a cookbook I received from my cousin when I asked her for a couple of her favorite recipes. She got a blank, spiral bound notebook and FILLED it w/recipes (hand-written, both sides of the page). I've basically learned to cook from it - and still use it 10 years later.

My WORST gift ... really hard to determine. I guess it would be the cherub clock w/the broken leg and clock that didn't work - a wedding gift. (I said 90% of Indians give cash .... the rest .... )

[Auspicious]

Worst: Tickets to a marionette show at a museum. There was no way out--it was like, "My gift to you is that we're going to this show, pick out a date and I'll get the tickets!" Whoopee. It was like a marionette opera. It was fascinating for about five minutes, because it really was amazing that they could make these marionettes move in such a fluid and human way . . . but once you got used to that it just went on and on and on. I'm not such a big fan of opera to begin with, but opera where there's no actual singing on stage, just the marionettes pantomiming? It was painfully boring and hours long.

Best: Oooh, too many to choose from. I got one of those cookbooks, too--my SIL put it together for my shower and included a bunch of recipes from her mom (who is a caterer!) and mine, like the cinnamon rolls we always have on Christmas morning, etc. I agree it makes for a great gift. I also really like some of the family heirlooms we've gotten.

Good gift gone wrong: My parents got us a hot air balloon ride to celebrate my birthday and my husband's completed PhD. It ended in a somewhat scary crash.

It started out great, sunrise launch, weather was gorgeous and clear, big 9-person basket under a huge balloon. While we were up there it suddenly changed. Sudden temperature drop, wind picked up, we could feel the balloon stop midair and then blow backwards 180 degrees from the direction it had been moving, we were surrounded by a thin cloud/heavy fog. The pilot's looking, looking, looking for a suitable place to land.

And basically there's no good way to land a balloon in high winds. The basket hits hard in an empty lot in a subdivision of houses, knocking us off our feet, then slams on its side and drags 90 feet on its side while we all hang on for dear life and the the balloon is deflating as fast as possible. The pilot is shouting, "Pull your hands inside the basket, keep your hands inside!" until the balloon tangles on this 10-foot tree in front of one of the houses. Basically you don't want any part of you between the 300-lb unstoppable dragging basket full of people and the ground. There was a giant divot and a 90-foot-long strip of mud where the basket had torn up all the grass in its path.

So we all crawl out of the tipped-over basket once it stops, they call the fire department to come with the cherry picker to pull the balloon up off the tree, the residents of the house wake up to find a couple dozen people and the fire department in their yard and a deflated ballon in stuck in their tree, and as we're packing it up it starts pouring rain. Hee! Really it was all fun except for the fear of death part.

[DCJenn]

Worst gift- the previously mentioned purple flowered vase

The Best gift: hands down, the walking/biking/running stroller that I got for Mother's Day. I am so out the door every single day.

The second best gift: any of the family pieces of jewelry that I've recieved over the years. I shared the same birthdate as my great-grandmother and I have therefore received many of her pins, lockets, etc. Most recently my mom gave me a coral ring that had been hers. I do suffer a momentary pang because there are 8 other great-granddaughters. It's only momentary though.

Jenn

PS- Julie- so glad you lived to tell that tale!! I would have been crying like the girl I am.

[SueC]

OMG Julie!!! That sounded terrifying!
Best gifts: My mom and sister went in together last Christmas and got me 5 hours of housekeeping, DH has given me some really great pieces of jewelry. I also received a cookbook for our wedding from a little old lady my dh's family knows. It was one of those small-town cookbooks and she wrote notes out to the side all throughout the cookbook, noting which recipes she particularly liked and which ones she substitutes ingredients.

Worst gifts: We've received several very tacky souvenir-type items sent over from the Philippines. You can make just about anything out of a bunch of seashells, apparently.

Best Gift: DH got me a digital camera about three years ago, before DD was born. I love to be able to capture so many moments and email pictures so quickly and easily.

Another Best Gift: Necklace from MIL. Her grandma always wore a charm bracelet with all of the kids/grandkids names on a individual charm. When the great-grandma died, the charms were passed out to those they represented. MIL wears three on a necklace, hers and her two sons'. She had one made for me and DD the Christmas after DD was born. All the aunts wear theirs, and I think its so cool that I have one now as well.

Worst Gifts. DH has given me some very bad gifts. Not so much now as when we were first dating, but they were awful. Valentine's Day. DH shows up with a flower in a vase. I realize its a fake flower in a plastic vase. He confesses he stole it from Fazolli's because he forgot it was Valentine's Day. My birthday, he gives me a little tiny dolphin shaped container that has a dolphin necklace and earrings inside, and the cover of the container is a dolphin pin. I really don't like dolphins more than a normal person, I don't wear jewerly, and it was ugly. DH goes to Hawaii for spring break, he comes back with a Scooby-Doo stuffed animal, which I found out he got at the airport once he got home because he forgot to get me anything while he was there.

I mean really, it would better to just give me nothing at all.

[SueC]

Those are pretty bad Shella.
Your Valentine's one reminded me of another of my worst gifts--an ex-boyfriend of mine gave me a bag of Runts for our first Valentine's Day together. (In case you don't know, Runts are that sour candy that is shaped like various types of fruit). I have no clue why he picked that for me.

[Meenah]

Shella wins!!!!!

[SuzySunshine]

Best gift: Probably the first diamond my DH ever bought me, I'd never owned a diamond before.

Worst gift: This one comes from our wedding. First, a little history, my DH's family is better off than mine - for us that has never been an issue, I think it still his for his mother, but that is another post. Anyway, we got a knife set for a wedding gift, which was not the one we registered for, no tags, no brand names that we recognized, i.e. no way to return it. I don't even remember what we did with them, probably put them in with all the stuff we donated to charity when we moved. So skip forward three years, we order some steaks, burgers, etc. from Omaha Steaks and with the order we got a cutting board and a set of knives. THE SAME KNIVES that someone had given us for a wedding present. So then we got in a discussion on who had given them to us in the first place. I was positive it was someone from my DH's family so I dug out my wedding stuff and looked it up, sure enough - it was his godmother and her husband. I still love to give him a hard time about it.

I'm sure we received other gifts that were worse but I like the story with that one!

[fluffhead]

I have some friends who got not one, but TWO (2!!) spitoons for their wedding, from separate people.
I guess they make nice planters.

[Vanquisher]

I love the cookbook idea! I've decided I'm giving one to a lot of people this year. I'm going to put one together, have it bound, and give it away as a Christmas gift. What a great idea!

gifts

Best gift ever: Last birthday DH got me 2 bio books I asked for and a CD. I didn't ask for the CD. He was driving one day and this song came on and he thought of me and got teary eyed, so he went right to the store, bought the CD, and indicated in the card the story and what song to play. It was the seal CD and the song was "love devine".

Worst gift: An old boyfriend bought me purfume for Valentines Day. Nice right? Well for my birthday soon after, my present was the "free gift" pack that they give at the counter sometimes as a bonus!!! LOL!#!@#!