but it's a gift!
Someone close to my heart recently celebrated a birthday.
Months before the "big day" I embarked on a quest to find the perfect gift. You see, years past, I have always given the "best gift ever" and I championed myself year after year.
Year 1: a homemade DVD of family and friends greeting the celebrant happy birthday
(took me hours upon hours of editing)
Year 2: a silver engraved ring from famous jewelry store (rhymes with "iffany")
Year 3: a scrapbook (took MONTHS to complete 35 years of memories!)
So this year, I decided to "outdo" myself and ordered a personalized jersey from the Chicago Cubs. And you think the "iffany" ring was expensive. I even made sure that the "e" in the last name was the same "e" from Mark DeRosa's jersey.
Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Days before, my heart would flutter just thinking of how awesome my gift was and how everyone would say, that's such a great idea Lyn, what a gift Lyn, and so on and so forth.
The day came. As my gift was being opened, blood rushed to my cheeks and my heart was pounding. Did I win my coveted "Best Gift Ever" Award?
Unfortunately, No.
A confused set of eyes met mine when the jersey was raised up.
What's with the small e? Is that correct?
Yes! Have you not seen DeRosa's jersey?
No, but I think he spells it with a big E.
Ummm, I don't think so, I checked.
Are you sure? Let's turn the game on.
And so my moment of glory was deduced to a petty argument on how Mark DeRosa's jersey was embroidered. The game was on, and for some odd reason (I think it was Fate feeling sorry for me) DeRosa was next on the plate and ran to second base on a base hit. And sure enough, the e was smaller than the rest of his jersey, and I was right.
But did it make me feel any better about my gift? No. I should know better and remember my days of Sesame Street and fables where the lesson is: Gifts are made for giving. I was too caught up in the gift giving game that I forgot the real reason why I am giving a gift in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still quite upset. My gift was supposed to bring pride and joy to the giftee. Instead it's in the shirt closet hanging out (get it, hanging?) with Urlacher's number 54.
posted by suPerg!RL 13 @ 9/01/2008 02:23:00 PM
4 Comments:
This sure sounds very familiar to me. How do we manage to get ourselves caught up in 'the game' of gift-giving when the receiver tends to shrug it off diminishing our feelings to ashes? My partner treated my gift in a similar fashion and I ended up in tears over it. I specifically made her a scrapbook for our 10 year anniversary. Gosh, I think I had been working on this thing for days getting it all together. Why when I showed it to her the evening of our anniversary did she not even pay close attention to the details as I did when I was creating it. I was saddened by her response just as you probably were by your giftee. So, I so feel you on this. It makes us question why we give gifts in the first place, but as you stated, I think we're doing it for the wrong reasons; we're doing it for ourselves and not so much for the other person as you stated.
Looks like we've gotta change our mentality here, lol.
My sentiments exactly. Scrapbooks are a lot of work! I bet you thought of every detail and every item that you placed in each page.
Yes....I agree...it's us that needs to make the change here....
Lol...yea, there WAS a lot of work and detail that went into created that beloved scrapbook for my honey who didn't seem nearly as enthused about it as I was. I still occasionally take it out and look through it from time to time, moreso when she's away at work or school and I miss the heck out of her.
If it were me, I would've most definitely found that shirt to be picture-perfect. It had all the bells and whistles of a personalized gift and just to know the story behind it, what all you went through to have it personalized in that way made it all the more special. Keep your head up, though. Try not to get discouraged the next time you decide to give a gift to him or anyone else who may react in a way that could be displeasing and unappreciative. If they don't thank you for it right away, they will eventually. :)
"creating", sorry!
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