Cruel Christmas gifts

By now we've looked at our stash from the holidays and started to evaluate them. Every year people get the greatest pleasure of the holiday, giving cruel Christmas gifts. These are the gifts that are the most fun to give and the least fun to receive.

We all know inactive people who's main exercise is walking from the car to the bar. For them, an exercise bicycle is the solution. They'll use it a few times, then it will perch, collecting dust in the basement making our friends feel guilty every time they walk by it to do the laundry.

For the cousin who always complains she never learned to paint, a beginner's paint set. She'll try it once or twice, give up, and feel annoyed with herself every time she passes it in the sewing room. Ditto for clarinets for the would be musicians. Clarinets are incredibly difficult to play for the beginner.

Items that are difficult to set up are also a great cruel Christmas gift. Electronic toys that have to be configured with blue tooth to a computer are a good example. Many a Christmas dinner has been ruined because all the men refused to leave the game room until the Fitbit or Xbox was configured, leaving cold turkey and stuffing on the dining room table.

Many of us are watching our cholesterol these days. For us, a box from Hickory Farms will do the trick. My brother loved giving these to my mother after she went on a low salt diet. Have an uncle who is cutting down on his drinking? A bottle of Jack Daniels will do the trick.

By the time most of you see this blog Christmas will be past and the travails of the new year, another Trumpian year, will be upon us.  Don't trip over those shoes that don't fit, return them!