I am a really easy person to buy a gift for. At least *I* think so. I drink a lot of coffee, so you know you are always safe with gift cards or mugs or tumblers. I like to read…so sending me a box that looks a little like this?
DROOL.
I like pop culture. I like movies. TV shows. Music. I like video games. I like board games. I like lip gloss. I like purses. I like Anthropologie. I exercise occasionally. I like to sleep, so you are always safe with delicious flannel pajamas. I am obsessed with hoodies. I like theater. I like candles. I like to smell good. I like in a cold climate, so obviously you are safe with scarves and hats and gloves and mittens. I like necklaces. I like to cook AND I like to eat.
I am even open to the idea of manicures and pedicures. I’ll be honest. I HATE getting them. But, I like getting them as gifts, because while I don’t love them, I realize they are a necessary evil to being beautiful; see also: waxing.
I do not, in any way, think that a gift card is a cop-out (You hear that, Rach?!?!). In fact, I LOVE getting them.
Honestly, I feel like I have given you about 25 years worth of birthdays and Chrismukah ideas.
I mean, occasionally, I get a little surprised by some gifts. I mean, I’m the girl whose Grammy gave her $1.47 in Canadian coins as a wedding gift. I remember when I turned 12 and my mom got me this Mickey Mouse watch that she was so excited to give me. I never wore it once, and sulked for at least a year about it. But, I mean, I was TWELVE.
I try really hard to come up with gifts that I really think the receivers will like. AND something that they wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves. So, I bought my sister-in-law a bucket of good-smelling bubble bath from Sephora…because I know she has three kids and not much time for self-pampering. I bought a necklush scarf for my sister because the barefoot foodie introduced them to me and I don’t think my sister has one yet. I bought a Keurig coffee maker for my stepmom because she is always complaining that she is the only one who drinks decaf and feels bad brewing a whole pot just for herself. HUZZAH! No need to feel bad anymore.
BUT, I just got wind from my dad that she didn’t like the gift.
I am devastated. Because not only did she not like the coffee maker and all the assorted brands and flavors of decaf coffee my sister and I picked out for her, she thinks that it was more of a gift for US than it was a gift for her. Wait. What? We really thought so hard before buying this gift and we thought we had struck gold. We thought we had found something that she actually could really use and this was the first year that I didn’t have to default to giving her pictures of the kids because I didn’t know what to get the girl who has everything. I found the coffee maker tucked in a back closet in the basement.
Now, I ask you. What would you do? Would you haul it out from the closet and try to find the receipt and return it? Get her a starbucks gift card instead? Would you haul it out from the closet and set it up for her and show her why she will love it? Would you pretend that none of it happened and demand a wishlist from her next year?
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