traditions.

Stephen & I only have a few traditions we faithfully follow, but one of our favorites is on Christmas Eve, when we each give each other pajamas.

This year, I thought my favorite seamstress in town would be wonderful for this. I went to the market to find a nice red & mustard yellow plaid fabric for Stephen, and a coordinating paisley for me. I took our old pajama pants to her and asked her to replicate the sizes, plus a few additional instructions. Namely, I wanted Stephen’s to be basic plaid pants with a drawstring. I wanted mine to be capri length in the paisley pattern, plus a ruffle at the bottom & drawstring in the same plaid that Stephen had.

It looked so cute in my head: coordinating Christmas pajamas!

I arrived at the shop to pick them up last Saturday and found myself in a familiar situation, what we affectionately call a “very Thai experience.”  Stephen’s looked great; they lacked a drawstring, but nothing too significant. Mine, on the other hand, were another story.

I first noticed the abnormal amount of ruffles. How could they just be at the bottom when there were just so many ruffles…everywhere? Sure enough, they were not only along the bottom, but up the sides of the legs. A triceratops was the first thing that came to mind.

I look up at the seamstress’ husband (and our translator), who pointed to the excess ruffles and said, “For you. No charge!”

Please note that this no extra charge for the extra ruffles; I still purchased the two items. He looked so proud, as if he had just blessed me with a Christmas present, rather than turned me into a cowboy.

I wrapped them and put them under the tree anyway.

And when I put them on, they were far worse than I imagined!