Am I The Grinch?

OK, so all of my co-workers gave me Christmas gifts. Ornaments that don't match my tree, candy and a notebook, and a $25 gift card to Legal Sea Foods (holy cow!). One even said, "Next year, we should just all go out to lunch instead of these obligatory $5 gifts." I didn't get them anything... except for the two I work with most closely (which I blogged about last week). Am I jerk? Probably. But I barely bought my own family gifts this year. I guess I could've just done cards or something nice but it's too late now. Just blame it on being knew and honestly not knowing people did gifts around here.

Reading my mind

My family (well, mostly me) uses Amazon's Wish List feature for gift ideas, especially those small stocking stuffer type gifts. I literally put every brand of beauty, cosmetic and cleaning product I use on there so they don't buy me Crest toothpaste (I use Sensodyne) or something.

Back on Nov. 29, I found a really pretty yellow necklace on Etsy that I wanted. I had been wanting one for a while, most specifically back in October when I had to work an event with a Bruins player and had nothing yellow (ahem, "gold") to complement my black dress. Since then, I've gone to two Bruins games with my dad and came from work both times, so I was in cute work clothes as opposed to Bruins gear, and I WISHED I had some yellow jewelry.

So, I added said necklace to my Amazon Wish List. Forgot all about it, actually.

Today, my boss and co-worker and I exchanged gifts. The three of us are our own team within the bigger media relations team within the even bigger communications department. MY BOSS GOT ME THE EXACT YELLOW NECKLACE THAT I NEVER TOLD ANYONE BUT MY AMAZON WISH LIST ABOUT. How crazy is that?! She doesn't have access to it, but she knows I like going to Bruins games with my dad and that I often meet him right after work. And, she knows me well enough to know my style. Nailed it!

She also got me a very pretty cosmetic bag from West Elm. My co-worker got my a fuzzy ball winter hat that actually keeps my ears warm, unlike my other one which is thinly knit and barely provides any warmth, as well as a copper "K" wine stopper and a photo frame/ornament with a little dog on it - OBVIOUSLY a photo of Rags is going in that one.

I don't have a lot to spend on gifts this year, so I decided to make a majority of all the gifts I'm giving. For my boss and co-worker, I picked up a box of four stemless wine glasses for - I think - $8 at TJ Maxx. I got out my ginormous bag of acrylic paint and a box of Q-tips, and went to work “dotting” the bottom of the glasses. I did two in warm shades and two in cool shades. Then I baked them at 350’ for 30 minutes, and voila!

They both said they loved them, and appreciated that they were handmade. I gave the bluish ones to my co-worker and the pink ones to my boss as I thought they suited their personalities and styles best. I was going to tell them they could trade or mix & match but they opened them at different times and seemed content with what they got. Success No. 1 of my handmade gift-giving Christmas.