Christmas gone wrong...

Pleated Jeans, Cheezburger

***

Here are some humorous stories to remind you that Christmas doesn't have to be, and often isn't, perfect.

Run out of time or incentive to shop for yet another present? Here are some re-gifting confessions and snafus, as reported by AOL users.  This one resonates for me:

Reader Haveanangel says:

"About 20 years ago, my grandfather gave my husband a gift set of English Leather. He didn't like it, never opened it. The following year, [my husband] gave it to my brother-in-law. I have three sisters and for the next few years, that gift set made it's way around the family Christmas circuit. My husband got it back and he said enough was enough. He gave it to his brother. We haven't seen that stuff since."

Some good holiday stories can be found at HamptonRoads. Here's one that isn't about Christmas, but could be:

For Thanksgiving this year [2010], Cathy Jenson of Chesapeake decided to make a chocolate cake from scratch with her children, ages 7 and 9. The arguments left flour and cocoa powder everywhere, and the first attempt at making frosting had to be discarded, but finally the batter was in the pans and the pans were in the oven.

The second frosting attempt went much better, and Jenson said, "Hey, guys, looks like it turned out good this time! What's that smell?"

The 8-inch pans - smaller than the recipe called for - had overflowed. Flames were coming off the bottom of the oven.

The kids dropped to their knees and crawled to the front door, per the instructions from firefighters visiting their classrooms over the years, while Jenson's husband doused the fire. Then she put the cake back in to finish baking.

Done and cooled, the rounds broke apart as they were removed from the pans, but Jenson's mother-in-law held them together while frosting was slathered on.

"The result was a lopsided, crumbly cake with a split on top to rival the San Andreas Fault," Jenson said. "It was delicious!"

Below is the photo that accompanies Stacey Gustafson's blog post about their artificial Christmas tree.

***

Stacey Gustafson, "Christmas Tree Taunts Us," Are you kidding me? 

***

-- Marge