Gift for Teenagers

I love shopping for gifts.  I don't like shopping, but I love shopping for gifts.  I'm blessed with a keen sense of observation and a great memory...which come naturally, for introverts like me.  The observation of people around me helps a great deal in choosing the right gift for the right person.  Choosing the right gift is kind of like solving a case.  When you have all the right evidences, the case falls into place.

Shopping for babies are easy...a cute outfit from Gap, a nice wooden non-toxic stroller entertainer, or an exotic baby memory book, wrapped in Papyrus paper, tied with handmade ribbon, then finally accented with a rattle.  Shopping for newly weds are equally easy, just choose whatever they need in the house or the registry.  If all else failed, dinner for two in a famous restaurant never fails.  For older people, books, Kindle, sweater, scarves and massaging devices always please.  People my age, movie tickets, spa coupons or books.  Gift baskets please everyone except, of course, teenagers.

I have almost two plus countless nieces and nephews who fall somewhere between the age of 12 and 22.  Each of these "teenager" loved the previous countless gifts that I've given them over the years.  Legos, DVDs, video games and consoles, books, outfits, Magic Ovens, GI Joes, Barbies.....Why is it so HARD to buy physical gifts for them now?

I think it is partially my fault.  I refuse to swim the money and gift card water.  Through out the years, I laughed at friends who dutifully handed out money or gift cards for their teenage recipients and assumed  that when it comes to me, it'll be a piece of cake.  I was never this wrong.  I haven't gotten one gift that did not receive the famous eye roll, the expressionless, or the fake "Thank you I love it!", and *put it aside* look.  CDs?  Wrong genre.  Books?  No time.  Clothes?  Not cool.  Video games?  Wrong console.  Toys?  Are you kidding me?  I dread the upcoming holiday.  Is gift cards the only way to go?

The Black Friday Craze

I went to bed extremely late last night.  It always happens when husband is out of town.  With all the work and cooking and driving my three kids around, I treasure the private alone time that I have for myself after they've gone to bed.  So, I was checking my connecting my phone to the charger at 2:00 a.m...and there they are, posts about door busters and Black Friday deals.  People are actually awake at 2:00 a.m. to go shopping, for deals that are usually not enough to go around.

I don't understand this phenomenon.  What on the earth can be so important that people need to get it now...waiting outside the store, in the rain, in the cold?  Is it really for the savings?  Is there really something so necessary that one need a huge saving before purchase?   We just love to splurge.  There was an article in Newsweek that says there are 12.8 million Americans who are still paying off their holiday debt from last year.  Last year.  Did they buy the whole Amazon or Costco?

Amazon has a lightning deal for the older generation Kindle that took place today for a few minutes, for $89.  There were a lot of people in front of their computer or computers waiting.  Millions of people started clicking at the same time, noon at PST.  Thousands of Kindle 2 were sold in the first few minutes.  The upset shoppers spammed Amazon Kindle page, calling the retailer liar, rip-off, spammer, bait-and-switch; and vowed to never shop there again.  When are these people going to realize that they're not entitled to everything.  A lightning deal is just that....a deal that comes and goes in a nanosecond...

Wake up, Black Friday shoppers....they're just, things.