I love Christmas shopping. It makes me happy. I mean, I like shopping anyway (when I have money), but I especially love shopping at Christmas because I love finding things that I know will make my friends and family happy.
I'm a fairly talented gift-giver. Not perfect, of course. There are some people that are just IMPOSSIBLE to shop for. But, for the most part, I think I do a pretty darned good job of finding just the right gift for nearly everyone on my list.
Sometimes I decide ahead of time what I'm looking for and set out to find it. Other times, I go out with the list of who I can afford to buy for and scour the malls until I find something that screams "I'm perfect for so and so!"
A couple of years ago, when I was still living up in Utah, I planned a Christmas shopping trip with some friends: Dustin, Emily and Ashley.
(Side note: That night was also the beginning of the oh-my-gosh-Emily-and-Dustin-are-SO-gonna-get-married story, because up to that point, we literally had all been Just Friends. But that's a story for another day...)
Anyway, the four of us met at my house and we all piled into Ashley's brand new Honda Civic to head off to the mall in Layton. Because some of us were shopping for each other in addition to our families, we thought it best to split up for a bit and arranged a time to meet later.
I took off with Emily. It's possible Dustin was with us too and that Ashley took off by herself. I really can't remember. But I know Emily was there and I had no idea what to get Ashley. I had considered finding something to feed her Phantom of the Opera/Gerard Butler obsession, but no inspiration had yet struck me.
And then I saw it. A kiosk full of these:
"Those are perfect!" I said. "Those are SO Ashley! She's gonna love them!""Oh my gosh, you're right," said Emily, laughing at the whimsical slippers.
Giddy, I bought them while Emily stood watch to make sure that Ashley didn't happen buy right then. It wasn't that big of a mall, after all.
We continued shopping and, before it was time to meet Ashley and Dustin, I managed to procure a large enough bag to hide the gift so that Ashley wouldn't see them. We switched up and Dustin and Emily took off while Ashley and I went to shop for them.
We passed the Happy Feet kiosk.
"Those have GOT to be the UGLIEST things I've ever seen," Ashley declared of the all-sales-final slippers I had purchased only an hour before.
"They're kind of funny," I said, trying my best not to laugh and also wondering who I should give them to instead. They were too big for me.
I decided to give them to her anyway, and she could figure out what to do with them. I also marveled at how badly I'd gotten it wrong. Ashley was usually the easiest person on my list. Uh...to shop for! So, I wrapped them up and gave them to her a couple of weeks later when we all got together to exchange gifts.
She opened them. And she laughed. "I can't believe you bought these!" she said.
I told her I'd already bought them before I knew what she really thought.
She wore them. And she wouldn't admit it, but I think she loved them.
Want to join in the Group Blog fun? Stop by Steph in the City to link up and to read about everyone else's take on Christmas Shopping.
15 comments:
Oh, I've had this happen to me, only the person really didn't like it.
wow. those are special! I would probably hate them but accept them anyway, I have a hard time turning away gifts.
I used to be the best gift giver ever. But I've gotten sort of lazy.
My family doesn't do gifts for birthdays or anything, now that we're all adults. But Adam's gamliy does gifts for everything! I was so over it and finally told him he was in charge, so now he does gift cards. I was told his family was very disappointed when I gave the reigns to him.
I love this story. I would have cried, I swear!!
Loved reading this post. Thats a great story, but I don't know if I would have been brave enough to still give her that gift. They are definately something for the "right" person. LOL :)
That's happened to me, only I was the recipient :-)
Those shoes look like the houseshoes my mom bought my niece and nephew to wear around her house. They're so fun looking!
Giving gifts can be so much fun, or a total drag. It really depends on who I have to buy for. I try to keep my eyes open year round so if I see something for the hard-to-buy-for people I can snag it early and be done.
Maybe the fact that you knew she'd love them, even though she thought she hated them makes you the best gift giver of all?
Great story! I haven't had anything quite this ironic happen, but there were times when I bought what I assumed were perfect gifts for folks that turned out being not really something they wanted. That is one thing that makes very specific wish lists nice, I guess, but it does take some of the fun out of it.
That is SO funny! I've had something similar happen to me too but I ended up returning the gift to the store after panicking because my friend wouldn't like it. I ended up giving her a gift certificate instead!
Oh geez -- what a funny situation to find yourself in. I would have been like, "Um... well... er..." At least you managed to stammer out something about them being kind of cute!! Too funny. I bet they're her FAVORITE. She'll never tell ;)
cute story. YOu could have saved face and just said, I knew you'd hate them so I thought it would be funny. LOL.
Over from my SITS day.
That's hilarious! I've had things like that happen. And, I bet she really did love them. Who wouldn't?
I completely forgot about this story until now. It was so hilarious when she said how ugly they were. Ah, the good ol' days! :)
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