I have yet one more thing to say about Tis' the Season and then I'll be quiet. Well, okay, maybe two things but one for now. It's about giving gifts to our children. Parents with more than one child, moms in particular, always try to keep the total dollar amount spent on our children even, especially at Christmas. Christmas is the one gift giving moment that it's easy to compare gifts, one sibling to the other.
If one child asks for a "big" gift, and we decide to buy it, and the other child didn't have a "big" gift on their radar then they get enough smaller gifts to equal the bigger gift. This year that is what happened. By "big" gift I mean expensive. It may also be big in size but it's always expensive. My son wanted an PS3. Those aren't cheap so that was his "big" gift. My daughter, on the other hand, didn't have "big" items on her list. She had 2 or 3 medium sized items. His "big" gift was $350.00, not including games and another controller. We decided that because he wanted it so much we, along with his grandma and aunt, would go in on it. It also wasn't just a gaming system, he would also have to have another controller and a game. What would a game system be without a game? Our part in that gift was roughly $250.
At first glance the most expensive thing on her list was a Vera Bradley purse. The purse would be roughly $45.00. After I bought the purse and some other things to try and equal things out, I saw that she had Pandora on her list. Now I wasn't that familiar with Pandora. I did know it's popular and kind of expensive. My daughter talked about it a lot. While out Christmas shopping I decided to go into this boutique. The shop sold baby and toddler clothes plus some jewelry, namely Brighton and Pandora. I still had to get my daughter about $50.00 worth of something to "make it even." I decided to check out Pandora.
There was tray after tray of goodies all varying in size and color. So many different charms that my eyes were beginning to glaze over. Actually I think there is something in those trays that hypnotizes you. I began to get sucked in. I had to do something so I took my eyes off of the trays and opened up a Pandora catalog that was sitting on the counter.
I don't know if this is a common thing but the trays of Pandora jewelry I was looking at did not let you know how much the items were. The catalog, however, did tell you. Seeing the prices of the various pieces was all it took to snap me out of it. Holy Cow!! I had no idea. That could have been her "big" gift but now it was too late. The necklace alone was $78.00. Then I thought, "Well, I could get her just the bracelet without a charm." I thought she would like the necklace better though so I decided against it.
As I turned around to tell my husband my discovery, sheepishly telling him that I had made a mistake, what to my wondering eyes did appear but an assortment of Brighton to brighten the year. I had no idea!! Brighton carries jewelry that looks like Pandora for almost half of the cost. "Big" gift issue was an issue no longer. I picked out a necklace and a charm to go with it. Yeah!!! I was proud of myself but in the back of my mind Pandora kept singing out to me, "You made a mistake!" "You made a grave mistake!" In my moment of self-absorption, I tucked that thought away.
In the end it was all okay and she forgave me. I know it sounds like she's spoiled. She really rarely asks for anything and when she does it isn't much. She's a good girl. All she wanted was Pandora. Well, she does have a birthday in about 6 months :0)
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