I secretly (okay, not secretly) love getting earrings as gifts, because people give me earrings I would never have found or picked out myself, and I always end up loving them.
Case in point:
My lovely and talented sister
Amy gave these to me for Christmas. Aren't they awesome? I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to these because the findings are gold, but that's really secondary, because it's the pearl and the circular white 'facets' that stand out.