Dorky bike gifts from clueless people

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Whoa, is that a doggie or a furry dragon?

It's Toto's evil twin, Moto. And it bit Glinda on the ankle.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

It could have been worse. He could have gotten you these...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Castelli-Gold-La...QQcmdZViewItem

Would these be considered safety/reflective?

Oh my GOD. Noyt sure about the "safety shorts" idea- seems to me they might cause a few accidents on the road...

[Bikingmomof3]

(((((Tri Girl))))) It truly is, IMO, the thought that counts. If you saw my house you would see how eclectic it is. Mainly due to many gifts from friends I treasure and who thought enough of me to send me a gift. Ask X and Kit about my Santa riding a crow. I love it. A friend made it with her hands and it has a special place in my heart. For what it is worth, I love homemade gifts and I imagine your paintings will be well received.

[wannaduacentury]

To me the best gifts are handmade, and if not handmade then anything that I know someone truely put thought into. My friends mom once knitted me this silly pink beanie to wear while I run. It even has ear flaps. Some would call it hideous, but I love it because I know when she was knitting it she had me in mind. Thats what counts. I have tons of those silly gifts that I cherish because there is love behind them.
sigh...

I know what you mean. I made my 2 youngest s-i-l's scarves about 2 xmas's ago(chenille too-in the color of their choice)and While I know they liked them, I haven't seen them wear them yet. and yes it gets cold in Ga to wear them. My m-i-l bought some mohair yarn to make another s-i-l(married to b-i-l) a scarf and I made it and she sent it and she did cartwheels over it b/c someone made it for her. So I guess it's the difference in person or some folks just don't realize how much effort goes into making things. I love my sil, I'll just make things for those that appreciate the time I put to make them and give them something else they may like. Jennifer

[lph]

Lately I've started painting for people. They're not paintings worth anything, but at least I try to pick scenes they might like.

Oh Tri Girl, you're nothing like what I meant! I don't mind "crappy" (i.e. inappropriate, useless, not-my-type-of-thing) presents, if they come from someone who truly doesn't know me that well, or who obviously means well but just has different taste. I get presents like that all the time, from neighbours, or my mother-in-law or whatever, and they just make me smile. In fact gifts like these are sometimes the ones that make most happy, because they turn up out of the blue from someone unexpected :-)

Honest - if my mother had made me anything, ever, by hand, I would treasure it even if it were pink earwarmers with little gold piglets on...

And fwiw, I was brought up (by her...) to never, ever criticize a gift, so it took me years to pipe up that I would in fact just prefer a nice card.

[jobob]

I'd rather just never exchange gifts....it's too stressful, and has truly taken the fun out of Christmas for me as an adult.
Ok- I'm ready for everyone to pounce on me. I can take it...

You kidding?!? Leebob's and my families have declared a moratorium on Christmas gifts, for which I am eternally grateful. We don't do Christmas gifts for adults, plain and simple. And our Christmas is blissfully stress-free.

[KnottedYet]

You kidding?!? Leebob's and my families have declared a moratorium on Christmas gifts, for which I am eternally grateful. We don't do Christmas gifts for adults, plain and simple. And our Christmas is blissfully stress-free.

that sounds PERFECT! Presents for kids, and really that's what Christmas presents started out as in the first place.

when did it turn into big screen TV's and XBoxes and "bigger and better" expensive shtuff like that?

Oh, and food. gotta have the food. Food is good. And parties. With food.

[jobob]

Oh, and food. gotta have the food. Food is good. And parties. With food.

Oh, but of course !

[mimitabby]

It could have been worse. He could have gotten you these...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Castelli-Gold-La...QQcmdZViewItem

Would these be considered safety/reflective?

GOsh, if they weren't wanting 60 bucks for a starting bid
I would love to bid on them.. like 5 or 10 bucks, they'd be a hoot!

[Tri Girl]

You kidding?!? Leebob's and my families have declared a moratorium on Christmas gifts, for which I am eternally grateful. We don't do Christmas gifts for adults, plain and simple. And our Christmas is blissfully stress-free.

I love that idea. Actually, it's what our families decided to do this year. We figure that as adults when we want something, we get it. It's not like when you were a kid and you didn't earn money and actually had to "depend" on the kindness of others to get you what you wanted. When we want something, we buy it- so it seems silly to get gifts anyway.

Plus, I like what you said about the kids getting gifts. That's all the fun of Christmas anyway- the excitement on their faces, and the thrill when they get something they really, really wanted.

All my friends think I'm scroog-y this time of year, and it's not that (I like to think I'm a giving, caring person), but shopping for friends/family just stresses me out...


and Mimitabby- I'm with you. I'd bid on them if they weren't so crazy expensive. Really, who's going to give up $60+ for THOSE shorts. I'd wear them as a prank on our annual Christmas light ride if they were cheap- it would make everyone laugh so hard they'd be crashing left and right.

[fixedgeargirl]

It could have been worse. He could have gotten you these...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Castelli-Gold-La...QQcmdZViewItem

Would these be considered safety/reflective?

Those are fantastic! Wish they were my size! Oh, and a lot cheaper .

[DirtDiva]

I really like how some of my friends who have a large, extended family Christmas thing draw names and only buy one cousin/auntie/grandad/whoever a present. It's a nice way of keeping the gift-giving goodness, but cutting down the needless expense/acumulation of junk/etc.

Oh, and if somebody bought me those shorts, I'd use them as a tourniquet. (Around their neck! )

[SadieKate]

Even "does the contrast stitching on these shorts make me look fat" me would wear those shorts if it guaranteed a gold medal at the Olympics. Paulo Pezzo looked darned good in them with her matching "jewelry."

[xeney]

This thread really depressed me. With my immediate family, we always had a pretty low-key approach to Christmas ... we all tried hard to to buy something the others would like, but if they didn't like it, you'd never really know ... because my mother thought that returning a gift (unless to exchange a size) or regifting was rude and thoughtless, so everybody was just happy and gracious. And they still are that way, so buying and receiving is a pleasure even when they get the gift completely wrong. (I will never know why my mom thought I would love a sweater with a giant parrot on it, but I am pretty sure that this sentence I just typed is the first time I've ever expressed anything negative about that sweater ... which went to the Good Willl over ten years ago.)

But I have another bunch of family members with whom I now exchange gifts, and the attitude is completely different. Everything is always wrong, Christmas is a time of disappointment and resentment, and buying the wrong gift is an opportunity to revisit every real or imagined flaw in the relationship. It is a miserable situation, and a holiday that I used to love is now something that I dread. And the dread starts in early November, because we try so hard to get it right, but we never do.

I have pretty much gotten to the point where I don't even care. I will buy any stupid thing because they aren't going to like it anyway. Which of course makes me the grinch who is ruining Christmas.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

This thread really depressed me. With my immediate family, we always had a pretty low-key approach to Christmas ... we all tried hard to to buy something the others would like, but if they didn't like it, you'd never really know ... because my mother thought that returning a gift (unless to exchange a size) or regifting was rude and thoughtless, so everybody was just happy and gracious. And they still are that way, so buying and receiving is a pleasure even when they get the gift completely wrong. (I will never know why my mom thought I would love a sweater with a giant parrot on it, but I am pretty sure that this sentence I just typed is the first time I've ever expressed anything negative about that sweater ... which went to the Good Willl over ten years ago.)

But I have another bunch of family members with whom I now exchange gifts, and the attitude is completely different. Everything is always wrong, Christmas is a time of disappointment and resentment, and buying the wrong gift is an opportunity to revisit every real or imagined flaw in the relationship. It is a miserable situation, and a holiday that I used to love is now something that I dread. And the dread starts in early November, because we try so hard to get it right, but we never do.

I have pretty much gotten to the point where I don't even care. I will buy any stupid thing because they aren't going to like it anyway. Which of course makes me the grinch who is ruining Christmas.

Xeney,
You apparently have two completely opposite ends of the spectrum divided into two different family halves. I'm sure it's wonderful to have the first group you describe that is always gracious, just as I'm sure it's awful to deal with and exchange gifts with the second half who find everything to be wrong and are full of resentment towards each other.
For most people it's a combination of varying degrees of compatibility, effort, appreciation, and thoughtfulness. It's not usually all black or white.
We just came from a friend's house this evening where we celebrated a little holiday cheer. We brought 4 perfect red pears and 5 tangerines, nestled in pretty colored tissue in a box as a gift for our friend and her young son. She gifted us with a lovely bag of granola that she made fresh in her kitchen. We sat and had cheese and a glass of local fresh ginger porter we had brought over, talking about life and watching her sew little wool and woodenpeg dolls for her son's xmas present. This is the kind of holiday celebrating and gifting my DH and I prefer to engage in with our close friends and family. But we realize that not everyone has the same ideas and preferences that we do. We don't "get" some people just as they don't "get" us. Sometimes we just have to try to tolerate them anyway.
I suppose it would be better for ALL of us to stop exchanging gifts altogether with people we have problems relating to in one way or another. If this issue is big enough in your life to cause you misery and turn a holiday you used to love into something you dread starting in November, maybe you should consider this option and put your foot down about participating in that debacle of gifting unpleasantness with that part of your family. I wish you luck with alleviating the problem, it's not easy.