Gifts from China

Each year my husband gets a 10 day trip to China from his work. It sounds all exciting but it really isn't.  This trip means he has to be on really long flights, travel constantly from hotel to hotel, and be away from us for 10 days.  To me this sounds like a vacation but to him its just agonizing.

Last year he bought me a lovely handmade dress from Vietnam which I love and cannot wait till the weather gets nice enough to wear it.  He also picked up a few China made barbie dolls that the girls ended up breaking within a week. Well to be honest they were pretty cheaply made.  So this time he was a bit more picky about what he picked up for us.

His work has him meeting with vendors and looking over what their company is doing with these vendors.  Last year the vendors gave us 2 pounds of coffee which was pretty good.  We flew through that coffee thinking nothing of it.  Well this year we were lucky enough to get some more of that coffee.  Come to find out this coffee is crazy expensive.

Notice the small squirrel at the top of the box? Yeah this small little picture is actually a HUGE picture.  What I mean by that is the process of this coffee is not the normal process. You see they feed coffee beans to squirrels and the squirrels eat it up.  A little while later they poop it out and its collected, washed and roasted. Yes you read this correct. This coffee sells here in the United States for around $30 a cup. A CUP!!  So this year I have decided to ration my squirrel poop coffee and its kept in the freezer.  This way we use it for a treat instead of blowing through it like last year.  We have two pounds of this coffee so it should last us a while. 

We were lucky enough to get some tea this year.  I was excited to get these metal canisters because when the tea is gone I can use them for gift boxes or just getting organized. Then I opened them and was shocked. In my mind I was thinking of all paper tea bags or maybe some satin bags.......NOT THIS.

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! WTF!!!!! Okay okay....calm down Nancy.  Imagine the look on my husband's face when he was handed these? He knows how I would react and couldn't refuse a gift so was screwed either way. Poor husband.  I should of known by the plastic that I had to cut off just to open these metal tins.  Seriously people! I roll my eyes every time I look at these. I have no idea what type of tea these are because I cannot read the Chinese writing on them. I am pretty sure that they are expensive because they are from another vendor.  I tried the larger pack of tea and it taste like green tea. It was way nicer than anything I have tried here in the United States. These look like green leaves wrapped into little balls. Only ones I have tried look like herbs that are ground and no whole leaves at all.  I should appreciate what I have but I just simply cannot get over the excess use of plastic here. Ugggg.

Then we have this little beauty.  We lost the papers that came with it but I think you put coffee grounds in the small white cup at the top of the picture, then that goes onto the top, then you put the strainer on the top of the top cup, add hot water and then top it off with the small lid.  I think.......This came in a paper box with no plastic! Phew...

Again this is some nice quality ceramics.  They are really pretty and I'm not sure if I will even use them.  Just another vendor gift that I'm sure is expensive they give it to a unappreciated gloop like myself. Sorry China. I really am trying this year I promise!

So your thoughts on this whole group of gifts? Do you ever get crazy gifts?  What do you do when you are given a gift that you would love to refuse but don't out of respect?