I was recently asked about my favorite gifts to give and receive for Christmas. I’d like to share those lists with you, but first let me share some very cute stories.
Before I was married, I bought my Mother a fabulous 3-piece-pajama lounging set – pants, a top and a jacket. (Seems like I was always interested in lingerie.) The jacket came in two lengths – short or to-the-floor. My mother was tiny, so I went with the short one. On Christmas morning, as we unwrapped our gifts, I panicked while opening one of mine – the same gold lame set. I thought for sure I had inadvertently opened my mother’s present. I looked again and my mother was opening her present. Much to our surprise, we got each other the exact same gift, except I received the long jacket. It was apparent we both loved glitz and glamour.
Fast-forward many years.
After a brisk morning walk along the Charles River one early October, I stopped on Newbury Street to get a cappuccino. In one of the store windows, was an incredible life-size leopard shoe chair. It was amazing! Based on the fact that my husband and I got our start selling shoes, dresses and lingerie combined with my love shoes and Walter’s love of buying them for me, I knew I’d found the perfect gift for him.
Naturally, I bought the chair and asked them to hold it until December when someone from our warehouse could pick it up. On December 24th, I instructed one of the guys to pick up the chair and bring it to our home. I then asked our Housekeeper to put the chair in the guest room on the opposite side of the bed – down flat so it was out of sight. Later that evening, I told my son Jamie that I discovered either the best or most ridiculous gift in the world for his father. He took one look at the chair and voted, “ridiculous.” Quote, “Dad is going to hate this.”
I awoke Christmas morning to my husband opening champagne – one of our many holiday traditions. I walked into our living room to hang his Christmas stocking and noticed that Jamie had brought the chair out of the guest room into the living room and had put a sheet over it so my husband couldn’t really tell what is was.
As I hung the stocking on the piano, I noticed that we had purchased the exact same Christmas stocking for each other – in the shape of a Shoe – and they were from different stores. I was so tickled to know now that he would LOVE my gift.
As he approached the living room, my husband looked at me with a bit of annoyance. He said, “Why didn’t you come into the kitchen first like you normally do?” He added, “You’ve really spoiled your surprise,” looking at the covered chair. “What surprise?” I asked. He said, “One of your gifts.” As I looked closer, I realized the bottom of the chair was not covered and it was RED! He pulled back the sheet and there was the same shoe chair, but in red!
As I stood laughing hysterically, Jamie came in and couldn’t believe his eyes. He then brought out my husband’s leopard chair. Yes. We bought each other the same exact chair! We picked it up the same day, from the same place and had actually “hidden” it in the same room – mine behind the bed and his in the bathroom behind the shower.
Jamie simply looked at us both and said, “Well, now I know why you two have been married so long!”
Those two chairs have followed us to Hawaii and, I can assure you, will be with us forever.
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