Presents

I am a terrible gift giver. 

I hate the present part of birthdays and Christmas.  The stress to buy the perfect gift is too much- especially since I HATE to shop.  Yes.  I hate to shop.  The only stores I go to are Target and Harris Teeter (grocery store- for my out of state friends).  Truly.  Don't worry I do some damage to the old bank account by just going to those stores. 

I find shopping overwhelming with all the choices there are.  If I find something I like at one store- I second guess myself and think I'll find it somewhere cheaper.  Where that somewhere might be- I don't know as I don't like to shop and quite honestly I am too lazy to go searching for something that I could find somewhere cheaper.  So then I find I haven't made a decision.  By the time I say- I'll just go get what I found at the first store- it's gone. 

Or the other thing that happens to me at my children's birthdays is I imagine a product out there that I want.  I assume because I have thought of it- it's available and not bizarrely overpriced.  Well that never happens. 

For example- Alexa's birthday is tomorrow.  (more on that tomorrow).  She'll be 1.  I wanted to get her a little house that does "stuff." Nana has this old school Sesame Street activity club house from way back when Doug and my sister in law were little kids. There's slides and knobs to turn, and doors to open. Every kid that goes to Nana's house likes to play with that.  When Andrew turned one I looked on ebay for one- turns out they're like a collectors item- hard to come by and a bit expensive.  Anyway- Andrew has a Bat Cave.  He LOVES it- so does Alexa.  I have considered getting her one- and spray painting it- so we'd know who's was who's.  But . . . that's not exactly what I wanted.  So I go to Target, and several other toy stores and all the activity houses like I thought I wanted are so . . . gender specific (I don't want her to have pink, sparkly, princess already- but I don't want rough and tough construction either) and they light up and make annoying sounds and don't actually do anything- because all they do is light and make noises.   So I drop back.  I look on line and I find several other cool things . . .  only available on line and won't be shipped until next week. 
And then I realize again- this is why I hate shopping.  There are too many options- but not enough convenient ones.  Does that make sense?   Hopefully today I find something . . . although taking 2 kids out shopping doesn't exactly fill me with hope for finding the perfect present, I might find the perfect aggravation instead.