I’m not totally sure what to discuss today. I think ideally I must be in the correct mood to get a log that I am satisfied with. I am not in that mood, so please don’t hold this log against me.

Happy Birthday to Andrew! Not today, but tomorrow when you will read this. Thursday the 11th. The big two-oh. Hope you enjoy our crappy gifts.

October is an expensive month in the Vierck household. Four nuclear family birthdays, plus Halloween. Not to mention the fact that I am currently ready to start shopping for Christmas. I LOVE Christmastime.

Which gives me a topic.

Gift shopping. I enjoy shopping for gifts. Not as much so when it is actually December, due to the crowds. I hate people. Rude, inconsiderate, in my way, taking tiny little steps and moving so I can’t get around them. But going out and getting something that I think the recipient will enjoy receiving. I spend entirely too much on gifts. I spent MANY years on the whole ‘what will I get?’ as opposed to the joy of giving, but it caught up to me in the past 3 or so years. For some reason, it doesn’t hit me for birthdays that much at all.

For me, it is taking the time, doing the research, browsing until something hits me that I think the person will like. I despise giving gift certificates. Not terribly keen on receiving them either. When you give a gift certificate, it seems to me that you didn’t want to spend the time and effort on trying to find something they will enjoy. It strikes me as a cop-out. When I receive them, yes, it is convenient to be able to select the item myself, but too much pressure. You have to let the person know that you have used their gift certificate, and what you got with it. I always feel obligated to look for the best item I can for the price limit, even if I only want something small and inexpensive.

Perhaps it is just me. I am an odd person, as you will come to know, for those who don’t already.

In the past few years, I look at how much I spend on as person as a secondary concern. It still ranks, just not at the top. I also came to the conclusion, which seems to take some time to reach, that our parents give us more than one gift, so we as adults should not feel that we only have to give one gift in return. Especially when we start to earn more than our parents.

We all know that person for whom gift giving is to get just one gift or two, to perhaps get the cheapest gift on the list. It may be for financial reasons, it may not. I feel rather sorry for those people. They do not get the joy. I try to give gifts the giftee will use and enjoy throughout the year. Where they can think of me when using it. Not that I am in this for the thank yous. I HATE thank you cards. A gift is not given for the purpose of receiving gratitude. I’m sure Emily Post will disagree, but I feel the only time a thank-you is appropriate is when the gift is not delivered in person. This way, you let the sender know it has been received. If you open the gift in person, and thank the giver at that time, what does a thank-you note serve?

I also do try to keep in mind that my parents did not raise me with this habit. Which I’m sure is a good one, per Miss Manners. When I have them, I would like to raise my children with it. When you already have a habit, it is easier to choose to not do so, than to do. Unless we are talking about an addiction. A completely different stratosphere.

Gift lists are essential to my gift getting experience. Some people (Andrew) refuse to do up a list too far in advance. There has to be at least one item that you have been wanting but don’t NEED. Something you just haven’t wanted to spend the money on yourself.

The purpose of this log is not as a hint to family and friends. Just my personal views, which in the past I have pretty much kept to myself. I do not judge how a person thinks of me by the gifts I receive. Most of the time. It is pretty hard to stay with that if you receive one gift and the person sitting next to you receives 15. But that rarely happens.

Of course, there are always the people who make gift-giving near impossible. Such as my husband, Ben. The man is incapable of putting anything on his list that is less than $300. I do not consider a new hard drive for the computer to be a meaningful gift. It is not something where he will boot up, and think, “Gee, I’m sure glad that Tempe got this for me.” This is my cross to bear.