Giving Gifting

Our church has a Christmas Outreach tradition called the Giving Tree. Each year Hubby Tony and I choose tags for a male and a female, buy and wrap the requested items, then return the back to the church so they can be delivered to a city in southeast Missouri

Public Domain Pictures

Earlier this week Tony was meeting some friends at church. While he was there he picked out tags for a 47 year old man and a 21 year old woman. 

I put the envelopes containing the instructions on my dresser so I could remember to buy the presents. The gift drop off isn't for several weeks, but today I found a coupon from Kohl's for 30 percent off a purchase. The coupon expired in a couple of days, so I asked Tony to to go shopping with me.

Each year the requests are pretty basic. The man asked for jeans or pants (size 34-32) and underwear (32-34). The woman wanted the same two items (bottoms size 12-14, and underclothes size 7).

Tony was in charge of making purchasing decisions for the man. After a little browsing he decided on standard blue jeans and boxer briefs. When we moved over to the women's department it was on me to figure things out.

There were a couple of issues. The first one was a size issue. The tag suggested a size range, which makes sense if the person was there in person and could take one of each into the dressing room, but no help for a third-party gift buyer. Even if my crystal ball could figure out which size was more accurate, there was still the length issue to contend with. Google AI told me

"The average women's pant inseam for an average-height woman (around 5'4" to 5'7") is typically 29 to 31 inches, while a standard "Regular" inseam length is often cited as 31 to 32 inches."

I fall into the average height range, but most pants are too long for me. Rather than guess wrong, I chose a pair of elastic waist joggers (size Medium) with an ankle cuff to eliminate the length problem. In the lingerie department I had to guess again, but figured high cut cotton panties would be a safe option.

We always include something extra with the requests. I had a pair of lounge socks in my gift stash that will be great for the woman. For the man I will be going back to Kohls tomorrow to use the "Kohl's cash" reward today's purchase earned us.