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Birthday Gifts

I have the pleasure of having a birthday coming up very soon.  In two weeks, I will be 36 years old.  I think that's considered late thirties, right?  But I'm not really writing today about growing older or the wisdom that comes with time, I'm writing about gifts.

When I was younger, I would love for people to ask me what I wanted for my birthday.  I would hope for one of the many things I would name.  But the truth be told, my favorite gifts were always the ones that were a surprise to me that also told me that the giver really knew me and cared about what I would think of their gift.

Now, I keep a wishlist, but secretly, I want things that can't be bought on Amazon.  I prefer things that I've never seen before, that no one else will have, things that are unique and unusual, just like me.  For example, one of my most beloved, but highly balked at gifts is a vase that Joel and I received for our wedding.  It is wrapped in leather and quite honestly looks like a dead bat strapped around a glass cylinder.  We'll never find another one. It comes out for Halloween, though I couldn't find it this year and I was a bit sad about that.  Something else that is unique that I was sure that we did not need when we got it was a square crystal cake plate.  In fact, we returned it.  Then received another one exactly like it a few weeks later.  I use it every time we have a party!

I guess the thing that I've really learned over the years is that I'm not the best judge of what I will like, need, love, or even enjoy.  I like when other people interpret me and show me through a gift.  But then, if people know me well enough to do that, they are a gift in themselves.


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