In-laws visiting gift giving extravaganza!

Yes folks. It IS that time again where everyone gets to laugh and smirk over the outrageous gifts given to us by my in-laws. Let’s waste no time and jump right in as it’s plenty!

We will start with my son. It’s got some good and some just outright …well.. You will see.

Dr. Seuss book and educational workbooks. Okay this is a good one. She had called me from a Walmart at their place and asked what Dr. Seuss books he already had and she got this and some others that he will get over time. I’m VERY GLAD that she called and asked because she has been getting duplicate books lately, mostly from Dollar Tree. Of course anything educational is awesome too. This get’s a 5 out of 5 for good gift giving!

A stuffed frog. I honestly wish everyone would stop buying stuffed animals for him. He has his 4 favorite that he sleeps with every night. I have 4 large garbage bags full of stuff animals in the attic/garage. Still, this is a nice gift and they actually did NOT write “Love Ma/Pa” in permanent black marker so that’s great. A 5 out of 5

With the exception of the boat, these are wind-up bath toys. It’s a Dollar Tree buy and wont last long but I think he will get a kick out of them. Of course he has so many toys in the tub already that to put these in means no room for him. Some of the old ones will find their way to the trash.  Going to give this a 4 out of 5 rating.

Multiple things here. Upper left is a American flag sticker. I’m sure this was something that got that was complimentary to something they bought for themselves and they had no use for it. Arthur really likes stickers so it was a no brainer. Next is a hotel room key. I’ll say it again. A hotel room key. I thought maybe they accidently dropped one of the keys in from the hotel but this key does not belong at that hotel. This is an actual gift. I see you making that “What the heck” look. I’m doing it too and I’ve had 24 hours to think about it. Next is a oversized graduation pin from Dollar Tree of course. You pin it on your shirt and turn the switch on and it lights up. My son just graduated from K-5. Far right it one of those solar power swaying flower things from, you guessed it, Dollar Tree. He honestly doesn’t do anything with these.  I’m giving this a 0 out of 5 simply because of the hotel key.

Look! Another solar power thing and it’s a hula girl. They gave him two and said that one he had to give to his Dad (Me).  Blue, a good boy color. To see the one I got just keep reading. Also we have some notepads. He loves to write these days or do math problems. Paper for my boy is always a good idea. Over all, this gets a 4 out of 5.

A hat from…. Yeah. Dollar Tree. It’s not a bad hat at all and my son looks good in hats. This is a 5 out of 5 as I thought it was thoughtful.

 

Now it’s my wife’s turn. It’s going downhill fast folks!

Catalogs. And there’s more below. It has to be noted that my wife already gets the Roaman’s catalogs here at the house. Anyway, it appears my mother-in-law gets quite a bit of catalogs. So do we unfortunately. We’d have a lot less garbage at the curb if we stopped getting them. Getting a double helping certainly doesn’t help. Confession to be made. You will find me looking through the Vermont country store and other catalogs that have gadgets and neat things. My wife will look at them all. Once in a blue moon we will see something and buy it. Still. This gets a 0 out of 5 stars as she is simply passing on her garbage to us.

Size 12W shoes that it seems have been sitting in my mom-in-laws closet for some time. These are my Mom-in-laws shoes. That is her size. My wife is a dainty size 8. My mother-in-law knows this. Simply couldn’t bring herself to throw them in the trash I guess. 1 out of 5 stars as these will probably sell for a buck or two at our next yard sale.

More catalogs. More trash. 0 out of 5 stars

Look! My wife just graduated also! A solar power dancing flower from Dollar Tree. Best thing is the Hotel memo pad they swiped from their hotel. 0 out of 5 stars.

A book. A very Nice book. The field my wife works in is libraries so it’s right up her alley. A thoughtful gift. Probably found in a Dollar Tree, but you CAN find some nice books in a Dollar Tree. Sometimes there is editing errors though. Still it’s a good gift for my wife so a 5 out of 5 stars.

Another catalog. I’ll take a look at it later and then trash it. 0 out of 5 stars.

And more. 0 out of 5.

 

Okay. Everyone ready for mine? Let’s go!

So here is the other hula girl. I dislike the color pink. I’m not much of a red tinted person. Underneath it is a shirt from Hawaii that my mother-in-law bought for herself and didn’t like how it fit her so she re-gifted it to me. Let’s talk about the shirt. She bought it for herself so that means she thought it was a womans shirt, right? It didn’t fit so she re-gifted it to me…what she thought was a womans shirt. Well, it turns out that it is a mans shirt and that might be why it didn’t fit. I also wear shirts like this but none of which is read. I have only one solid red shirt in my entire closet. Guess I have two now. This is a 1 out of 5 stars as she thought it was a womans shirt and she thought it right to re-gift it to a man. Also I don’t do pink, nor does my son and I don’t do cheap solar power swaying toys that sit in a window I don’t look at. The “one” is simply because the shirt fits perfectly.

Three cans of tuna fish. Why did I photograph the bottom? Look at the date.  That is one year and 2 months expired. The cans aren’t bulging or anything but I do NOT feel safe eating it. They apparently decided to do a one a year cleaning of their cabinets and came across this. I asked about this and she said I could feed it to the ducks. I could but I don’t give anything to the ducks that comes canned or is processed. I have a large metal trash can of dried corn that is okay for them to eat and digest and they know that is what they get. I can imagine the conversation they had on how to pass this off. 0 out of 5 stars

I occasionally buy some sardines in mustard sauce or hot sauce in the tins. Occasionally means once every 2 years and only one tin. It’s not something I love but every now and then I want it. I prefer smoked salmon. I may open this up and try it. I’m pretty sure she picked it up at a Dollar Tree. 3 out of 5 stars simply because it isn’t expired and they remembered that I try things like this. There was some thought in this one.

This is a all plastic shower head that was in an open bag. It doesn’t even have a gasket. My dad-in-law had a stroke some time back and has a difficult time in the shower. We bought them a nice handheld showerhead so he could bathe easier. I even installed it myself. They also have my old shower seat so he can sit as he has trouble standing now. Jennifer and I have put a lot of thought into making it safer and easier for her dad to shower. I guess they wanted to return the kindness and found this very cheaply made shower head lying around somewhere. Maybe they don’t like the showerhead we got them.. All they have to say is we don’t like it and I’ll redo it. Maybe they thought about doing it themselves and found that what I put in is better and they didn’t want to throw away something they bought. Let’s re-gift the POS to Lamar for all his wonderful helpfulness! A solid 0 out of 5 stars

More cleaning out of the pantry. None of it contains Caramel Coloring  (they know it upsets my body). But still they are just passing on to me their unwanted garbage. A 0 out of 5 stars

Word finds. I don’t care for word finds. Too easy and a waste of my brain cells. It has been mentioned to them that I don’t do them. They don’t listen much these days. 0 out of 5 stars.

A dvd. I thought we had this. Maybe this is ours? Jennifer and I saw this and really liked it. Good movie.  They more than likely bought it because it has Tom Hanks and then didn’t like it because it wasn’t a Western and re-gift it to us. Most DVD’s find our way to our hands because of just that. Still. I like this movie. 4 out of 5 simply because I think they re-gifted it.

 

Well, that’s it folks. I have some things to put in the trash outside now. I hope ya’ll enjoyed this post. just remember this, IT’S NOT QUALITY AND THOUGHT THAT MATTERS, IT’S QUANTITY THAT COUNTS…. at least that is what I have learned from my in-laws. Thank goodness I didn’t get another plastic flag pole stick without the flag….. (in previous gift postings)