Many Happy Returns

File Under: Christmas in reverse

Yesterday I went out to the mall, not because I still have holiday shopping to finish, I actually had things to return. Matthew's presents went back to their respective stores. I needed to not look at the packages any more.

I got kind of generous with him. After he bought my matching bedding set, I decided I would buy him a nice set of sheets to go with his new bedding. Macy's day after Thanksgiving sale had some really nice sheets, reasonably priced.

Then, after he announced that he was having trouble figuring out what to buy my mom for her birthday and for Christmas, I went out and bought him a sweater from her. Banana Republic was having a big sale.

Last Monday, when I was at Matthew's (the night he cooked dinner for me and wanted me to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with him), we watched his show "Gossip Girl" afterwards (I had to teach him that with TiVo, you could watch a program currently being recorded and it wouldn't stop the recording from finishing. But I digress. In one scene, there was a party and champagne was being sipped out of cyllindrical champagne glasses and he mentioned how much he loved them and wished he could find some just like them. Well, I did a little online searching and found them and Crate and Barrel. "Exclusive Design!" On my day off last Wednesday, I bought six of them for him.

But, since Wednesday didn't end on a high note, I found myself with some gifts that would not be given.

There were a couple other items that I won't return, I'll keep and use. I bought him a winter hat from LL Bean. We had been looking at hats at Target and I found a hat in their catalog that was cute so I bought one for each of us (different colors). I'll wear them both, nice to have options. I had also ordered him a pair of funky reading glasses. Like me, he wears readers when he's got his contacts in and his coworkers were making fun of his drug store readers, so I ordered some from my online source for cool glasses - Debby Burke Optical. We wear the same strength glasses so I won't mind keeping these. They were inexpensive and purchased with my flexible spending account. :)

My QTS friends encouraged me to return and for each return, I should buy myself a little happy. I decided I would be "happy" with the charges reversed on my credit cards. Suze Orman would be proud of me.

So, I'm officially no longer a rule-breaker and every gift that I'm giving this year will be valued at $30 0r under.

His loss. My gain.