March 17, 2008

I'm Classy Like That

On Saturday I attended a baby shower for a woman in our playgroup. It was at my absolute favorite cake shop in town, which made me happy-happy.

Since the shower-ee has a son and is about to have a daughter, she asked for baby girl clothes. I am committed to the principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle lazy, so instead of buying a gift I gathered up some outfits we weren't going to use from Firefly's stash of presents. A little voice inside my head said, "You know, Heather, most of the women who are going to be there tonight were at your shower. It's going to be really embarrassing if you regift something one of them gave you." "No, no," I told myself. "I am smart and pretty and perfect and checked the email invitation to see who was invited."

Regifted items in hand, I headed off to the party. Sometime between the small talk and the party game I realized that the woman sitting next to me (a) hadn't been included on the email invite, and (b) had given me the sleepers I was about to hand over. Oops. "Ha, ha. Told you so," said the little voice inside my head. "Shut up!" I told that stupid voice. "It will be fine! It was weeks ago! Maybe she won't remember! Maybe she'll leave before gifts are opened!"

Perhaps I was imagining things, but when the shower-ee pulled those particular items out of the gift bag, I swear the woman next to me quietly leaned forward and narrowed her eyes as if to say, "Haven't I seen those before?" I just concentrated really hard on my piece of cake.

The worst part? I haven't yet written the thank you note for those sleepers. The ones she now knows I totally gave away.

17 comments:

Clementine said...

When you write your thank you note to that woman, just say that Firefly loves the sleepers she gave to you so much that now you give them out as a shower gift, too! Problem solved.

(Yes, I am a sneaky Gemini. Why do you ask?)

wendryn said...

Heh. I was going to say exactly the same thing!

Heather said...

Ooooh, you guys are smart. Smarter than I, that's for sure.

Ariella said...

I agree with the first post, just tell her you got some for X person because firefly liked hers so much.

Anonymous said...

Oops! I would have done the same thing, though. Why spend more money when you don't have to? It's not like you re-gifted it because it was horribly ugly (right?), just because you weren't going to use a perfectly lovely sleeper...

Having a baby shower at a cake shop sounds like a really good idea! Yum!

Unknown said...

If you're not opposed to lying, the solution is to write the thank you note and say that you liked the sleepers so much that you found similar ones to give as gifts at other showers. =)

Anonymous said...

Another way to do it would have been to be so bold and proud to just tell everyone you are passing on a wonderful gift you loved and didn't get to use for your little one. I recently attended a shower where the shower-ee asked that the gifts be secondhand and most everyone complied. It was a lot of fun for everyone to see the great quality and usability of gently used stuff.

Heather said...

That's actually what I did at my shower--ask for secondhand clothes. Because, seriously, we don't need any new stuff. Especially those tiny baby clothes--they hardly wear them before they grow out of them. And I felt a little weird about having a shower for a second child. We got some amazing pieces and we ended up with way more than we needed (I think a couple friends were eager to clean out their girls' closets!). Ironically, this woman was one of the few who actually gave me a new item.

Stephanie Wilson she/her @babysteph said...

Ah, oh no! I was just going to say what Clementine up there said!

Steph

GLouise said...

Clementine beat me to the punch, LOL!

Clementine said...

Heather, you have a lot of sneaky readers. Awesome, huh?

Heather said...

Totally awesome. And you led the way, you sneaky woman.

Corey~living and loving said...

some good ideas here.
I am totally a regifter. :)

Anonymous said...

Even my husband is laughing at this!

Mama Bear said...

Too funny!

Anonymous said...

Ooof! Pretty funny, actually. And although it doesn't seem to be needed, I'm tossing in my vote that saying you loved them and in fact gave the same items to Such and Such is 1) sneaky and gentle but 2) if you word it correctly, you're not lying! "I loved the sleepers so much, that I gave the same ones to my friend! (That easily can read like the "same" one means same pattern, style, color, brand, etc -- and that's the way folks will read it. Of course, you're quite honestly saying that you "gave the same ones" to a friend.)

Ha!

And a cake shop for a shower? Sounds Diiiiivine.

Gretchen

Angi said...

ROFL! too funny!!!!! I have actually so been there!

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