Belated birthday presents

I wasn't able to get my mom and my brother a gift for their respective birthdays, so I made sure that the next time I would see them (which was the Sunday after their joint birthday celebration), their presents would be ready.

For my mom, I got an orange shirt from Liz Claiborne. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to get because I wasn't sure about the size. That orange Liz Claiborne shirt caught my eye immediately since it was slightly sporty but had a classic style and cut, which means I didn't have to worry about it being age-appropriate. The problem was that the smallest size for that shirt was PS (or small) which seemed a bit too big for my mom. The Liz Claiborne shop in Shangri-La mall was on sale and I saw a few sale items that were PP (or XS) which I felt was the correct size. The catch was that if for some reason I got the size wrong, it would become a problem since sale items can only be exchanged with a different size and color (but still the same style). Since sale items had broken sizes, the right size might not be available anymore. I had to ask the staff about their exchange policy a few times (non-sale items can be exchanged with anything, including bags and even sale items, for up to 30 days as long as they are in good condition and you still have the receipt). I finally decided to get my original choice - the orange shirt. I figured that if it turned out to be too big, my mom could exchange it for other items in the shop that she could actually try on (a GC that can be used in Liz Claiborne was the more logical choice but I felt an actual shirt is was more personal). As it turns out, the size was just right for my mom. Cool!

For my brother, I got a dark blue shirt from Team Manila. I've window-shopped in Team Manila several times before and they have really great graphic designs. Unfortunately, their semi-fitted shirts don't seem to agree with my bulging belly LOL so I haven't bought any shirts there for myself. However, my brother is leaner than I am so I thought a Team Manila shirt would fit him perfectly. And as it turns out, it did.