It's that time again

Yup, it's that time of year when suddenly you realize there are anniversaries, birthdays, and greeting-card holidays (mother's day/father's day) looming in the coming months. Some times it feels like everyone I know has something or other going in the next few months.

Now, my brothers and I have a policy now that we're adults, a policy adapted from my mother and her siblings, which basically rules out formal gifts....except for when we're actually there in person.

No reason gifts are so much more fun and meaningful; you know you're getting a gift because someone was thinking of you, not because you're on a list of people you have to buy for.

You might say, gee Theresa, you could get that no reason gift and send it along later as a birthday/anniversary/yay you day gift! And to that I say: has any one seen where I put the ten plague finger puppets I got for Ranger to play with during the two nights of multi-course meals? (really, each puppet is a plague and I also have a bag of toy frogs- stored "in a safe place" with the puppets. I think.)

{Children are a different category, so we get my nephew a birthday gift (though I think one year I sent it a month late).}

The point I am making is, why do we insist on this stupid tradition?
Yes, I called it stupid. Look, if you are of a certain age (let's say adulthood starts at 25), generally you can get that thing you want to have. My Amazon wish list is full of things that I could buy if I really really wanted to. But I use the wish list as a "some day but not today" list. When I feel like treating myself to a little something, I start there.

The absolute hardest people to shop for are parents. They are certainly established enough to get what they want. My folks are having their 30th anniversary next month, and the best I can think of right now is a singing telegram. Not that it would be available. Or if it were available, I couldn't promise that my dad wouldn't go all Clint Eastwood-get off my lawn on the poor delivery person.

I usually stick with gift cards to restaurants, but after a while that gets boring and predictable ("hey, honey, fire up the car, we're headed for our annual OutBack Steak house dinner!")

The other thing that seriously irks me is trying to balance spending just enough without doing too much or conversely coming off as a cheapskate.

For instance, I like homemade gifts, both to give and get. There is real thought involved, so it means something. However not everyone has an Etsy store talent up their sleeve. let's face it, I'm a bit past the age where I can give my mom a pressed flower book and not feel as though I look cheap. On the other end of that spectrum, if I were to give my folks an all expenses paid Celebrity Cruise (which is less likely than the singing telegram), my brothers would be a tad mifted and might start referring to me a miss-fancy-pants-look-at-me-with-money, though they might just shorten it to fancy pants and post unflattering pictures of me on FaceBook (remember when you thought tie dye was so cool?).



Where I'm going with this is..still to be determined. I have a good number of celebrations to consider, and not a lot of ideas. In the mean time, if anyone knows of a singing telegram service in Pensacola....



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