dreadful gifts

It's totally abnormal, but I'm home at 8:20pm on a Thursday. This is nuts. I might have time to clean the bathroom, or do laundry, or take a shower. Or maybe I'll just tell you a story instead, because I haven't told one in a long time.

You know how you used to be little, and for your birthday each year, you would have a family birthday party with your parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and siblings? I remember my last family party. I stopped inviting the relatives after it, for good reason. I was ten years old.

On my tenth birthday, I invited the usual characters over for some cake and ice cream. Maybe when you were ten, you had friends over for your birthday, but if my memory serves me well, I didn't have any friends. That left me stuck with blood relations. To be completely honest, I probably wasn't even going to have a birthday party when I turned ten, but I figured I wouldn't get any presents if I didn't, so I better invite the relatives over. Big mistake.

When it was time to unwrap gifts, I unwrapped a clothes box from my aunt. It took one glance for me to know I hated what was inside, but everyone kept screaming "Hold it up! Hold it up!" And so I lifted the horrific nightmare out of the box for all to see. It was a bubblegum pink nightgown with sheer sleeves and a giant picture of a Barbie printed on the front. I about died. Didn't they know I was turning ten, not five? To make matters worse, someone yelled "Hey, I think there's something else in there too!" Sure enough, there was. It was a pair of pink panties, size 12. [I would like you to know that I usually do not refer to underwear as panties, but in the previous sentence, the word came after pink, and I have this thing for alliteration. So it had to be pink panties. But in real life I call them underwear.] I remember being appalled that the underwear was a size 12, because those were incredibly huge for me. I remember thinking "does my family think I'm fat?" So not only was I receiving a childish and embarrassing nightie featuring Barbie, but I was also receiving a pair of underwear the size of a tent to go with it. But I am a gracious person and told my aunt thank you anyway.

 Then as fast as I could, I shoved the clothes back into the box. That's when I decided I would not have a family birthday party the next year; they could all mail me checks instead.

Question: Have you ever received a mortifying gift?