This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Raising a Father. All opinions are 100% mine.
I spent three hours online yesterday trying to figure out what to buy my family for Christmas. So far I have figured out what to get my father, stepmother, and grandmother, assuming those things don't end up out-of-stock before I can order them tonight or in the morning. I have already bought my nephew and dogs' gifts. That still just leaves one person on my list--my sister. Despite all that online browsing, I still don't know what to get her other than that overly-priced blanket I refuse to buy.Since I know that my sister likes animal prints and that her favorite color is pink, I spent a good portion of those three hours trying to find a purse or wallet that combined the two things. However, the closest thing that I found to a pink, animal-print combo was this tote bag set from Target.
The only problem with the bag set is it is technically a diaper bag set, but I don't think she would know that if I took out the diaper changing pad and just gave her the bag, change purse, and cosmetic bag.
Anyway, my kidney stones willing--now my left kidney is acting up in addition to the right--I plan on getting up in the morning and going to local stores in hopes that I can find something that she'll (a) at least pretend to like and (b) that I'll like should she give it back to me in February for my own birthday. She did that one year when I bought her this sequined watch that matched her sequined purse; she gave it to me a month and a half later for my birthday. It was the gift that kept on giving, and you wonder why I have kidney stones.
If I can't find something tomorrow, I may have to have Target.com send the diaper bag directly to her. If that happens, I won't be able to remove the changing pad before she opens it, she'll know it's a diaper bag, and she'll toss it to the side without even realizing that it can be used for other things. That's not exactly the effect I want it to have on her.
I hate shopping. I just hate it, at least as far as my sister is concerned. Why can't she be a reader like my mom was? If all else failed and I couldn't find anything else that screamed Mama, I could always buy three or four hardbacks at the last minute, wrap them up, and know that she would be happy with them. For instance, even though my mom liked mystery and suspense novels, I could have bought her Arjun Sen's Raising a Father, a book about a man who leaves the corporate world, starts his own business, and finally takes the time to know his own daughter, and she would have been happy. Here is a sneak peak of that book:
My mom would have read anything, including a heartfelt memoir outside her favorite genre, and then passed it on to me to do the same. I would have read it, too. Like her, I just like to read.
My sister, however, does not. She won't even read the instruction manuals that came with the gigantic TV she just bought. Instead, she just keeps calling me and asking me how to work it, like my cheap, little, 26 inch Insignia has the exact same bells and whistles as her 55 inch Samsung. I wish! Consequently, I can't expect her to read a book.
Maybe I should just buy my sister a gigantic tube on sunscreen for her cruise and slap a big bow on it. However, she is tanorexic and refuses to listen to a word I say about skin cancer so I doubt that she would use that any more than she would use a book.
Ugh! Is Christmas over yet? Next year I swear I'm taking a cruise that allows dogs, and I may not come back. That will be my gift to everyone, including myself.
