Every Christmas my boss buys me a gift, gives me a gift card and also gives me a gift and a gift card for my husband and my two sons, AJ and Big A.  Of course I feel obligated to reciprocate, but she's not very easy to buy gifts for. One year I gave her a bath tub pillow along with some homemade bath salts. While Len Penzo says you should never give bath salts as a gift, I say his list must be for men.  After all, in my household I'm told that real men don't take baths, they take showers.  But authentic Dead Sea bath salts are expensive and my boss takes a hot bath every single evening. I even printed out a fact sheet for her on the benefits of bathing with Dead Sea bath salts.

She told me that her bathtub was too small for the bathtub pillow, and luckily her daughter wanted to borrow the bathtub pillow, so naturally she had also give her the bath salts. For her birthday one year I gave her earrings. I didn't realize that she only wears silver or white gold jewelry, so those went to her daughter as well. She likes food, but gosh, how many rings of shrimp does one person need?  She also has a habit of complaining to me when someone gives her a gift, so I know she's not too happy with most of what she's given.

So this year it wasn't any different. She gave me four gifts, a $25 gift card, a gift for my husband, sons, and $25 gift cards for each of them. I'm starting to feel guilty. On my way to the staff Christmas party on Friday, I passed by a roadside vendor out in the middle of nowhere. This vendor was selling authentic handmade Navajo jewelry. After about 30 seconds deliberation, I took a U-turn and headed back. I'm really glad that I did. But I know my boss likes silver and I know she likes turquoise. I found a pair of earrings that were turtles with a sun face. My boss has a ring that she wears on her pinky finger, a turtle made of silver and turquoise. She has three earring holes in each ear so I hoped she would appreciate this gift.

I did not get a photo of them but here is what the sun face looks like: 

Luckily, I had the grocery money in my pocket, I had not yet given it to Mr. A.

All of the jewelry was so beautiful. I really liked that it was locally made. The turtle earrings were $20. I thought the cost was very reasonable for a locally made, custom designed piece of jewelry, and from there I assumed that the rest of the earrings would also be $20. I really wanted to find a pair for myself, but I didn't want to be greedy. Instead, I decide to buy a pair for my mother. She loves hummingbirds and the artist had several pair in different colors. The pair I chose had turquoise and some type of iridescent green colored stone. I told the lady I wanted this pair as well. That's when she told me that the hummingbirds were $48 a pair. Ouch.

The prices were written in pencil on the back of each pair of earrings. I should have looked. And I felt too embarrassed to put them back after I'd already said I'd take them.

After all, surely my mother is worth $48. Here are the earrings I bought for my mom, aren't they beautiful?

The good news is my boss loved the turtle earrings. Finally. I found something that she will actually keep and wear.

Who do you know that is hard to buy gifts for?