I try to be a good gift giver. I mean, I try to care what people would like. Usually, I’m good at just envisioning what I would want. I’ve had Sophear and others claim that they enjoy my gifts. I also think the key is that I give gifts to people I know quite well. So, the other day when I was involved in the office white elephant, I thought it would be easy finding a gift. Then I started over thinking it. Do you spend the dollars on a gag gift? Something that doubles as funny and practical? Something completely awkward like a sex toy? Seriously. Or something that people would actually want. I had some initial ideas, like champagne from Trader Joe’s (since the cap was at $20, I can get something nice), but then I knew what some coworkers were doing… Snuggies. Yeah. For some reason this Yankees snuggie got stolen the most.
I love shopping for gifts when I’m traveling. I think that’s the best time to get gifts. And I actually kind of dislike being pressured to buy gifts. I feel the stores pressure you to get certain gifts. Only certain things are available seasonally. If I thought about this earlier than I would have gone to my go to online store: Think Geek.
I actually had the perfect gift in mind, but it wasn’t anything I can pull off. Stevies’ model photos, autographed. There is this whole HILARIOUS story about how he used to be an Abercrombie and Fitch model. After that got out, we hired a new customer service rep, ie. Kelly Kapor, called MJ and she ended up having these very posters on her wall. She recognized him… although he looks quite different now. Anyway. This guy is hilarious for other reasons that would take too long to go into, but it is an unintentional hilarity. Still, we all love him.
He’s the type of person to easily get persuaded to come into work in a Santa outfit and push back his vacation flight. Of course, in the end we told him he didn’t need to… although I do think someone should have dressed up after hours as Jesus, a la The Office, to be offensive. This guy is one of the most gullible person in the office. And he’s such a good sport about being Mark’s main tease.
I was trying to convince my boss to participate and wrap a huge box with a gift certificate to our company store or something. Haha. However, he’s just a scrooge. I pointed out that he could always rewrap the 100s of vendor gift baskets we received. Oh my gawd, this whole week I was munching on chocolates, chocolate cookies, butter cookies, buttercream frosted cookies, caramel popcorn, and chocolate popcorn. For real. I practically did not need lunch everyday (although that didn’t stop me). Insane.
I think I do good on individual gifts for people but these general gifts throw me off. It needs to be unisex and I don’t want to get something random. In the end, since I give out tea quite often, I got a tea set, which was received well with the person that got it. It came with some dorky lap mug. I also enclosed a silicone teaspoon, which I thought was cool. And a variety of Stash tea.
I think it was the knowledge that last year the present that went through the most people’s hands were the lottery scratch offs. I didn’t understand it, but I thought maybe there was something I was missing. So, this year, I stole some scratch offs. Last year, 3 people stole scratch offs and I was puzzled. I stole the dartboard and kept it in the office. I screwed Ted over, who in the end got a leather wallet. So, I got $18 in scratch offs. It wasn’t very satisfying, actually. I would have gotten the borders gift certificate or something. I was actually thinking of taking this one gift, but I’m glad I didn’t. I guess I need it. It was a coin counting jar. Yup.
This year no one wrapped a present in a shoebox and duct tape, no security needed. ;) And the for most part it was quiet, unlike last year. Last year it was Christmas Eve and last minute thing and we went to go find something during lunch in the snow storm. This year, my cube was my gift storage and I had wrapping glitter tissue and bags galore stored there, along with boxes for Sophear and Danny. This year my presents were different things for just lounging or something. I don’t know. I got them a cool around the world tea set (see a pattern – I saw it when I was shopping for white elephant), silicone teaspoon, a game, a scrap booking kit for our trip, and a schedule book for Sophear.
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