Thursday, December 16, 2010

My Best Gift, with Bonus Tantrum



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My mom was a pretty outstanding gift giver, whether it was an antique briefcase she found in the closet with my grandpa's initials, or the adorable stuffed animal/poster combos she picked out for my friends' birthday parties.  I remember for Hanukkah we wrapped up the 8 days of lights with a big gift.  One year I got a bike, my sister got a video player to go with her video camera, and my brother got a big stuffed raccoon.  We seriously thought he got the short end of the stick.  Of course we said nothing, because he absolutely loved it, had been coveting the guy to go with his smaller animals.

I like to think I inherited her gift giving skills, at least for the first 40 or so years of my life.  I'm pretty much burned out now...I gave gift cards to my kids last year for pete's sake.  I know that people just love gift cards, and my kids loved them of course, as they were for the Lego store, but I want to make be little more personal.   I've really scored in the past, though, and was reminded the other day by my mom of the best gift I ever bought for someone.  It was for my mom, and I had great fun reminding her of the story again. 

I was a kid, maybe 8 or so, and the family was shopping for each others Hanukkah gifts.  I took off with my dad, knowing exactly what I wanted to get for my mom with my saved up twenty bucks.  We looked and looked, but I could not find one in the right price range.  My dad is not an impatient guy, so we must have planned a meeting time as he started insisting we had to go, we'd come back later.  The item I was looking for was an electric nail file, and manicure set.  See my mom had, after umpteen years, had finally stopped biting her nails.  They were growing out nicely and I thought it would be the perfect gift.  I finally spotted it, and we were out of time.  My dad wanted to come back another time, the nerve.  I can't honestly remember why he wanted to leave, but I threw a tantrum right there in the store.  We had to buy this for mommy, she deserved it.  Crying and whining, I must have been quite a site.  I got my way, though, and snatched up that snazzy kit for $19.99. 

My mom used that thing for years.  It was a different shape than most, and worked amazingly well.  She seriously was never able to duplicate it when it finally died.  The tantrum was totally worth it in my opinion, and my mom was not just being nice, she used it all the time and still has great nails. 
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