Christmas Shoes

So last Friday Stephanie blogged about her issues with shopping for Christmas gifts for the guys in our lives. It's not only true that it's hard to shop for them, but there's an added aspect to this whole procedure as well.

As wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, etc., we feel the pressure to not only provide a meaningful gift to the male loved ones in our lives, but we also want to surprise them. We want to give them the perfect present to help make it a perfect Christmas. Which is hard to do when we don't know what they want in the first place.

Of course, if we do surprise them with a gift that's not really something they wanted, we can tell. We get a half smile. An unenthusiastic "thanks". And then after the gift sits in the corner unused for the next three to six months, we'll ask them about it and they'll tell us that it's not really something they want or can use.

But there's a whole other side to this dilemma. Because they have to give gifts too. And in many ways, it's just as hard--if not harder--for them.

After all, it must be difficult to know what to get the women in their lives when they don't even understand the women in their lives. Add to that the fact that many men wait until December 23rd to do any shopping, and you can see what a challenging task they have.

Somehow men always manage to make their choices and be sure that they're giving the perfect gift to boot. They either have a tremendous amount of confidence, or they just don't stress that much about whether or not we'll like it. Or they give us something that they know they'll use anyway.

Women, however, not only want to make sure that they give the perfect gift, they also want to assure everyone that they received the perfect gift. We may hate it, but we'll smile. We'll exclaim how perfect it is. And then we'll even wear it or use it so that the giver can see what a perfect gift it was.

Except that it wasn't.

For instance:



Many women would probably not consider these shoes to be the perfect gift. If you do, I'm not dissing your taste ... who am I kidding? Of course I am. I'm sorry, but these shoes are ugly. And weird. They're not an athletic shoe. They're certainly not a cute casual shoe. And they most certainly are NOT my style.

However, I received these as a Christmas gift several years ago. Not wanting to hurt any feelings, I smiled brightly and exclaimed my thanks. I even wore them later that evening when we played  keep away outside. it was cold, and I wore them with socks. It was not my brightest fashion moment. I do remember being grateful that it was too dark to see my footwear, and hoping that somehow the game ruined the shoes so that they could never be worn again. As you can see, the shoes weren't ruined. They still were never worn again.

I honestly don't know what my husband was thinking when he bought these shoes. Perhaps he was thinking, "hey, she's not really athletic, but these aren't really athletic shoes, so they should be perfect for her!" More likely, though, he might have been thinking, "These shoes are the only ones in her size on the clearance rack. Score!"

Like most people, I enjoy the anticipation of gifts, both giving and receiving. But I don't want to have my Christmas ruined by unwrapping terrible gifts and then pretending I like them. So what's my solution?

I buy my own presents. Then I give them to Kylee or Stephanie to wrap. My husband will usually comment a week or two before Christmas that he hasn't even bought me anything yet. "Don't worry," I reassure him. "I already did the shopping for you. You were very generous." In his defense, he usually gets me some nice jewelry as he's pretty good at picking that out. Or he gets guidance from Kylee or Stephanie who have been coached on what things I would like.

You may think that takes all the fun out of it, but I don't think so. I end up both giving and receiving the perfect gift. Now what's not to like about that?

If you guessed the Grinch as the source of the movie quote from Monday's post, you got it right! Here's today's quote:

"I hope I can return the electric blanket!"

"Where have you got that?"

"Under the underwear."