DH is notoriously rubbish at buying presents for his Mum.
(she is an excellent MIL btw 
pfgrin])
One year he rushed it in the Body Shop and ended up buying her a toiletry set...for men. She was upset though can laugh it off now.
I know she goes to loads of effort to think of things for him (and the rest of us) and has been thinking/buying for months.
I insisted this year that his family were his responsibility, though I caved and ordered Thorntons chocs for his aunt & cousins...
So yesterday he came home all proud that he'd found something perfect...a box of coasters.
Now they are rather lovely coasters & she will use them on her coffee table (well she uses others so assume she will), with a Union Jack pattern, in a nice box. But still...
On Christmas Day, she will have a mug from DS1 (the only DC old enough to get the idea of giving her something), something from FIL I guess, and a box of coasters.
He doesn't get that this might be bad, or make her sad, he says he spent hours thinking about what to get her - well he may have thought in abstract for hours, it's not like he thought how much she'd love these particular coasters then spent hours hunting them down.
So I've said I'll get her something else because I feel so bad for her. But what? She's on a diet so nothing edible.
I can go into town now or tomorrow (standard High St) or Asda or Waitrose/JL.
Any thoughts???