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My kids like to watch a teeny-bopper tv show called "Victorious" on Nickelodeon sometimes. The show will occasionally pop up a graphic that uses an emoticon to display the status or mood of the main characters.

If I had to display an emoticon to display my mood right now, this would be it:

Yes, I'm stressed. And one of the main reasons is because I'm trying to do Christmas shopping for my office.  Luckily, no one in my office reads this page, so I'm okay discussing this topic here.

[Not that anyone does regularly read this page anyway.  I used to say that I had five regular readers and I think I've officially lost a few since then!  If you are reading this page then it's highly likely that one of the following two things are true about you: (1) you googled "Uncle Eddie" and came to my blog looking for my post that had a picture of Dennis Quaid from Christmas Vacation; or (2) you're most likely related to me and/or your name probably starts with with the letter "E."   But I digress...]

'Tis the Season!

I like to think that I am good at giving gifts.  But gifting for the office is incredibly stressful.  First, there are quite a few people and so you want to get them something that they will actually like, but you also want to make sure that you don't overdo it.

One of the things that I think is key to giving a good gift is knowing what the person really likes, but sometimes, especially with people that you work with, you may know them really well in the office, but you don't necessarily know what they like to do outside the office.

It's not like you can say to your secretary, "Marge, you've been great this year, and I've really noticed how much that stapler bothers you that every once in a while, it will jam.  I know you've had your eye on a brand new one, so I took the liberty get you something really, really nice...Merry Christmas!"

And then they open it, and their reaction is: "Oh.  Great.  A stapler.  Just what I always wanted."

Even if they love the movie "Office Space" and even if they really need a new stapler, it's just not the type of gift that is going to excite someone for Christmas or that really shows how much you appreciate their hard work and loyalty over the past year.

Anyway, I went to Costco today thinking that I could snag some cool gift cards for my "Office Mates" but I'm just not feeling the inspiration.  I'll keep thinking on it...still another 12 days until Christmas, so no pressure!

If any of you have any great ideas for something to get a co-worker (especially my secretary executive assistant), please feel free to let me know!