God, my family annoys me. I know they mean well, but they give such lame gifts that have literally zero thought or effort. I really wish they wouldn't even try.
So last year, my parents got me Call of Duty: World at War and a Subway gift card. Those are the two that really bothered me the most. I do not eat at Subway, nor have I practically ever. And, I mean, it should be obvious that there are better places to get me gift cards to, considering they had seen me come home with fast food or sandwiches from places other than Subway on a regular basis and had in fact never seen me choose to pick up Subway for myself. Last fall/winter, I was spending every night at the local Tim Horton's just to get out of the house. I would go and order a drink and just spend the entire night by myself in a corner reading and go home a little before sunrise. I think it seems clear that someone gave them a gift card at work as a holiday bonus or they got it for free somehow and decided to use it as a gift. It may just be wishful thinking but I really hope they weren't dumb enough to believe it was something I wanted or would ever use. I still haven't used it. Call of Duty was annoying because it was the one holiday release I didn't want, and I literally would hare been happy with any other game or preferably even a gift card. It just highlights the fact that they know nothing about me but for some strange reason think they do.
To avoid something like that this year, I made it clear what games I'd like or actually play and dropped massive hints. And received a gift card to Gamestop. Seriously? This being after my parents asked me what I'd like on Black Friday and made me hold off on getting games I wanted for great prices.
No, I trusted them and held off on buying myself things this holiday season. I bought myself a book with my birthday money and spent the rest of it on getting them Christmas gifts. I got my mother the remake of 3:10 to Yuma because she's been reading and enjoying Westerns that I've left around the house lately, my brother Halo: ODST because he loves Halo, and my father Condemned 2 because he loves horror games and I figured he'd get a hoot out of all the NPCs talking to Agent Thomas all the time considering his name is Thomas. This is only the second or third year I've bothered with gifts, but I like that I at least think about them and try to get them things I think they'll like. My mother got me one of those Hex Bugs things that the local Radio Shacks always have out, and asked me if I knew what it was when I opened it because she clearly had no idea what it was or was supposed to do. Why even waste money like that?
She also bought me two flashlights this year for Christmas. Not one, but two. This idea stemming from the idea that when I needed a flashlight three months ago, I bought three and she found them. She saw them when she was cleaning my room (whenever I spend the nght out, I come home and find my room has been cleaned and rearranged; honestly, who goes in and rearranges someone else's bedroom? Clearly if it isn't the way I want it, I'm more apt to know how I'd like it and entirely capable of doing it myself) and only knows that I once had a need for a flashlight because I fulfilled that need myself by buying three. So she spends money on two name brand (quality, but still a completely and outrageously unnecessary expense) flashlights for Christmas gifts? I don't need flashlights on a regular basis, and I already have three. I'm so annoyed.
They got me a Tim Horton's gift card this year. Great, right? Wrong. I don't go to Tim Horton's anymore because the local one added a Coldstone Creamery and they now get a lot more business. I haven't even been there in a while because there are always too many people and it tends to be a lot noisier. I've barely even left the house in the past six months.
And then there was the Wal-Mart gift card. I know people feel better giving gift cards/certficates instead of just cash, but what the heck? I've been boycotting Wal-Mart for three months. Thank you very much for the gift card.
My parents are such awful, typical Americans. Just consume, consume, consume; 'hey look, there's that thing I saw a commercial for. I don't know what it is, but I had better buy it. Oh, and look, I don't need any pasta sauce right now, but it's on sale so I had better buy ten bottles.' It really annoys me that my family is always broke because they put no thought into spending and waste soooo much money. Last year, I didn't get one personal gift from my parents other than Call of Duty. The rest was all just stuff taken out of the gift section of an L.L. Bean catalog. Portable Emergency Clock Radio, LED Lantern, Gorilla pod (for my camera that they were aware is broken), etc. The kind of things that nobody ever buys for their self because they realize that nobody will ever use any of it except to give as a lame gift that nobody wants.
I mean, I know it makes them feel like better parents to give their children gifts at Christmas time, but really, what's the point if you're just wasting money on things they have no reason to think that I will like or use? I mean, I know I probably sound whiny and I would feel as much like an **** just asking for cash as I would taking things back (the reason that I don't do either and have boxes of gifts in their original packaging that I never use) but seriously, stop wasting money.