This isn't quite how Christmas is supposed to be. I'm supposed to be the one giving the gifts, not getting. Well, okay, it's nice to receive gifts too but I wish there was some sort of guidance or instruction on how to do it.
I have three bosses...well two officially but I claim the third because he and I do a lot of work together...so that means three gifts, right? So I mapped out what I wanted to give them. I was going to do a small GC to B&N for the third, a GC to GNC for the 2nd and then a bigger GC to Sportsman's Warehouse for the first because he is my boss and he's great. Well, then I started running the numbers and trying to be fair, because I'm all about fairness, so I ended up getting $10 GCs to the first two places and then $10 to Scheels instead of Sportsman's because SW doesn't have anything smaller than $25, and if I got $25 there I'd feel like I'd have to get $25 for all three - that adds up to way more than I can afford right now.
So last night was a battle of wits with myself. I think I lost. I had all these different options and looking at it now, I should have done this: $25 at SW for the first boss, $25 at GNC for the second, and $10 at B&N for the third. But I didn't. (A note for next year.)
And so when I came in this morning and there's a huge gift (cocoa set and ornament and cookies) from the first, and the second brings in a beautiful box filled with handmade stuff from his wife (and I know how long those things take to make - earrings, necklace, scarf) plus a penguin light thing, I feel horribly guilty for only getting them those small gifts.
I suck. And then a colleague down the hall brings in an ornament for me and I wasn't going to give her anything, so now I feel guilty because I didn't and I'm toying with running home (half hoping I get tasked to run for something for the afternoon Christmas party so I can) and getting one of the extra sets of Envirosax bags for her, which would also be good since there was one other person I was going to bring a set of those for and I totally spaced on it this morning. But then if you add the costs of those up then I'm giving more to people I like but don't work with directly and very little to my bosses who have been fabulous to me all year long.
So now I feel like a heel, but loved by my first two bosses, which makes me feel like a bigger heel because I should have gotten them more.
1 comment:
I hear you. Even in my family we have to work the whole give/receive thing out... do I give to all the aunts? Cousins? Only the familial units? I don't even know.
I think it's important to know that people are supposed to want to give you a gift without any concern about getting one in return. After all, you are a hard worker, and still not getting quite what their paychecks prolly are. Enjoy being appreciated, and don't feel guilty. Sincere thank-yous are enough.
...but yeah, I'd totally be out looking for last-minute stuff too. I hear you. The holidays blow.
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