What Gifts Should You Have Not Bought This Christmas?

Bed tents for both of my kids. They absolutely love to make tents out of blankets. These are the cheapest, most ill-designed things ever! They don't fit on their regular twin sized beds at all. SOOO cheaply made that the plastic poles before the end of the first day. And they were so excited to get them from Santa. We are back to the tent in the middle of the room made out of blankets and stools.

gosh the tons of candy! I'm now eating J. fruit and yogurt for breakfast and lunch and going to start exercising to work off this xmas candy indulgence=)

I splurged on jewelry for my mil and she didnt like it. Shes going to return it, but is acting as though it's a pain in HER butt to have to return it! She's hard to shop for but usually loves my gifts. This is the 1st fail and it happened on my biggest splurge for her! If I hadn't put any thought or my wallet behind it, I wouldn't be so annoyed by it. I feel like I completely wasted my time and money.

My biggest beef is lack of planning on the part of the toy/game makers in regards to the box. For example, we got my daughter The Wheels on the Bus game. She loves that song,loves the little bus that came with the game and it looked like it would be fun to play. The stinky part is the bus came encased in a plastic bubble window like thing, which is somewhat flimsy, but you have to keep or there is a great big whole in the box. Not a great idea when there are a bunch game pieces! My daughter also got a set of Melissa and Doug's wooden magnetic paper dolls. It comes in a really nice wooden box with little compartments for all the accessories...but the lid was a flimsy plastic piece that doesn't stay on after it is opened. I hate to throw away the box, but sheesh, now there is no top at all to keep everything from spilling out!
A.

Remote control car that won't reverse well. I took it back and got another one, but that one has the same problem. Annoying, but not that big a deal. It was cheap, and I bought it thinking that my 5 year old could start out with the remote control stuff with something cheap so if he broke it (likely) it wouldn't be that big a deal. Oh well. Cheap remote control things don't reverse well. Just drive it in a circle, son. I'll write Santa and ask him to make sure he doesn't keep outsourcing to China for some of these gifts. :P

Lil:

I was VERY good this year and we didn't buy anything that had to be returned or broke.

My boys lists were small this year - they wanted XBOX games (which we all know can be $$$$$$$$) and a Kinect (which still isn't hooked up because he didn't know we didn't have wi-fi in the XBOX...) but that's okay.

Other than that - we are good!! YAY!!!!

I bought my son a remote control spider that is supposed to go on walls/ceilings & it won't even charge first time out of the box! I emailed the manufacturer & they were all nice at first, but they haven't replaced it yet. So I think I am taking it & the emails back to the store & getting my money back :( Other than that I always look at the gifts & think where did my money go & I shop as cheap as possible! I did by one of my sons one of those boxing combos with the weighted bag & the speed bag on a stand. I bought the floor model because they knocked $130+ off...well Christmas Eve when we went to put it together (he still didn't know about it), it was too tall for the basement & I have drywalled ceilings..lol So,it is now in the garage :( Fortunately ,I didn't have too many of those I gotta have but then I don't touch it gifts...last year I had a few.

I got a funny shirt for the whole family and it was a resounding dud with my stepson. I should have saved the $15 or just gotten him itunes.

This year I was AWFUL!!
I should don't even say it but since I can hide behind the computer I will.
They had a great offer of 50% at Barnes and Noble on toys, so we got a few Playmobil toys for my 3 year old, My oldest keep changing her mind about what she wanted and at the end we decide to just give her money, BUT we the moving cost we end up spending a LOT more then what we expect and didn't give her the money and just bought a few small things for her art stuff (they were not expensive at all).
We move 2 days before Christmas
On top of that, when we move there was so much mess that I though would have being crazy to open the Playmobil toys in such a mess and without nobody really having the time to play with her anyway.
So, the toys still in boxes hiding on a closet.
if it helps my conscience, the kids (and I) have being so exited about all this space and having their own room and meeting new people, etc, etc, I don't think they really minded so much.
At least I keep telling my self that, &:*(

Santa saw this awesome fisher price lawn mower for my 1yr old son. Well we opened it up Christmas morning and I thought the only way the balls would spin in it is if you pull the cord WRONG!!! oh no the balls move every time he walks with it, causing this loud annoying noise!! (Santa should have known better! :) ) So annoying for my husband and I but my son loves it. Other than that I bought a mobi go for my 3 year old and when I went to show my husband we realized I bought an empty box!!! Thankfully it was caught before Christmas morning and thankfully Kohls was awesome with the situation, but I was still errked.