Tuesday, December 13, 2011

An unexpected treasure

I went to Goodwill looking for a white elephant gift for the gift exchange. If you haven't participated in one of these before, basically you find a tacky gift to nicely wrap (so people want yours) and then the lucky "winner" gets to take the tackiness to enjoy in the privacy of their own home or office.

The best "finds" for these sorts of things tend to be tacky homemade craft pieces from the 80s that have been given to Goodwill. Crotcheted Santas with lots of bells, tackiness that sings loudly, crotcheted candlestick covers... anything a "crafty" grandma from the 80s would have made.

One of my grandmothers died before I was born, and the other wasn't crafty. I still have tackiness around my house, but I want to keep my tackiness. So I went to Goodwill searching. I didn't find the "perfect" gift, but I found something that made me chuckle. Done!

Then I got distracted by some other displays and ended up buying something for myself. Inside the box, as I was rooting around to make sure all the parts were there, I came across something. I saw a Christmas card. (Don't you love seeing Christmas cards to/from people you don't know?) Then I found something odd. It was a gift certificate to the Outback. Free dinners, including appetizers & desserts, up to a $45 dollar value. No expiration date. Since it was a gift certificate and not a gift card, I knew it had to be a few (or many) years old.

I bought the item, including the gift certificate, and brought it home. I called The Outback. They said they would honor it.

So S, J & I went out for dinner for free (except for tip). I paid $2.50 for the item and ended up getting a $45 meal for free. Woot woot!

You never know what treasures you'll find at Goodwill!

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