Is this wrong of me on Christmas?

So, my wife's mother will buy any cheap piece of crap on sale at WalMart and give it to us for Christmas.
This year, I got my third - count em -- third crock pot in a row. She bought be a big one two years ago, a smaller travel one last year and one shaped like a football this year.
The wife got a cookie press that was amazingly just like the cookie press her mom bought her five years ago. Wife also got a big blender with a paddle to make smoothies. 1. We dont need a blender; 2. She bought me a smoothie maker last CHRISTMAS!
And this doesnt even include the kids!
The 4-year old got a train set. A different train set than the nice one he got from her last year, which we bought him several add-ons to this year! He also got a gigantic H2 remote control car exactly like the one his two cousins got for their last two birthdays (hmm, musta been a big sale??).

Anyhow, after the gift exchange the other night, we left her house and went straight to WalMart and got about $100 back in gift cards for all the crap she bought that we don't want and didn't want to haul three hours away to home. Now the gift card will go to the kids for DVDs or something they can actually use.

So, is this wrong or just a smart way to avoid trouble? If you tell me I can't take this stuff back, I will scream at my mother in law next year when she buys us the same crap.

 

if she asks how you like it, say you still enjoy the one she got you X years ago, and traded in the new one for some other stuff. maybe being subtle, she will get the clue without casuing friction.

 

If you just smile politely and say "Thanks", exchanging duplicate gifts for gift cards isn't a problem. Sure beats selling it at a garage sale.

 

Shouldn't this be on the crazy mother-in-law thread?

 

that should be ont he other thread too

 

I'm over there, too.
Thank God it's all over.

 

I didn't want to clog the happy Christmas gifts thread with this, and Ballscribe gave me a nice segue here...

Let's just say I'm the black sheep of the family. This year my brother and I got towels from our parents.

I got one giant bath sheet in a color that doesn't really match anything else in my bathroom. I also got the matching cloth bath mat (even though mine are the rubber-backed kind). No hand towels, washcloth, etc.

My brother got a complete set of towels from a nice store, including two bath towels, sans bath mat. And they were monogrammed.

Baa.

 

what did you do to your parents when you were younger?

 

We would need a special psychotherapy thread for that story... :

 

ah, nevermind then

merry christmas, though.

 

Cadet =

 

That's cute, but no outing!