Anyway, I'm moving in two days, and have even made progress on the laundry and packing. My new place is bigger, quirkier, and closer to school - with even more space for people wanting to visit! (And the Glee tour will be in town the 26th of June! Just sayin'.)
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Growing up, there was this awesome box in the storage room in the basement. It was full of all kinds of interesting things, and was the "go-to" spot when one was in need of a birthday or wedding present. A last-minute party, a baby shower, a thank-you gift - just go check out the box, because something was bound to be a perfect fit. Oddly, this box got a little less cool in the last decade or so - items had been sitting in there for quite some time, things got a little less applicable and a little more chintzy... I think we can blame gift cards.
Anyway, a few years back I was at home with my parents over Christmas. I think my youngest brother had just gotten married and I was the sole remaining child present first thing Christmas morning. Evidently, Mom had forgotten that we usually open "stocking" presents first - I'd gotten a few surprises for Mom and Dad's stockings, but mine was bare. Not even a lump of coal. We were in no hurry to dive in to anything, though, none of us being five, and we got a little distracted with a phone call from a sibling with children who had already been up for three hours by the time we got moving. When we returned to the stockings, I was surprised to see a few bulky packages had appeared near my stocking - I was excited to open them, but less excited to find a few different scripture study guides... all of which I recognized as long-term, out-of-date "on the shelf" items from the gift box. It happens, right?
The next Christmas I was once again the only child at home, and I got a large, flat, solid-seeming present from Santa. I opened a lovely coffee-table book of LDS artwork... which would have been nice if not for the fact that I already owned the same book, having purchased it years before when I worked at Deseret Book. I was a little confused, not having seen that particular book in any store for quite some time; I came to find out when I tried to exchange it that it was out-of-print and couldn't be returned. It wasn't until the following year when I was moving both copies of the book that a note fell out of one of them, written in my grandmother's handwriting. It occurred to me then that I had purchased a second copy of the book all those years ago and given it to my grandmother for Mother's Day - and when Grandma died and Mom helped clean out her house this was evidently one of the things that was "rescued" for the gift box.
Here's the thing - I'm a big fan of re-gifting. I think it's smart, it saves money and time, and if you do it right it can be very successful. There are entire websites dedicated to the practice of re-gifting, with lists of tips for doing it correctly. The all say pretty much the same things:
- Do not re-gift something to the person who originally gave you the present. (Duh. And yet...)
- Re-wrap the item. (Check.)
- Take careful thought - make sure the item to be re-gifted is a good match for the new giftee. (Pretty close...)
- Don't re-gift anything worn, damaged, or opened.
- Don't re-gift something handmade and/or craptacular.
- If you're not going to buy something new, be prepared to give up something really nice. (Huh.)
Some good common sense here, right? The one thing that's missing:
-Do not re-gift to the child who is most likely to recognize an item as having lived in the "gift" (read: "re-gift") box for at least a decade, OR who is most likely to have given the item as an original gift to the deceased grandparent.
I suppose it's kind of exciting to have a category all to yourself.
Don't get me wrong - my mother is great. She's a thoughtful, wonderful person, and very busy with volunteer work and improving people's lives. (Seriously.) She just doesn't have time to shop.
This year, I think I might have gotten an entirely new category of re-gifting: since I'm in England, my parents put some money in my bank account, which was terrific. Mom decided I still needed presents to open, however, and sent a package of small gifts in the mail, which was sweet. I got a little nervous, though, when I opened the big mailing envelope and found, amid all the little wrapped presents, a number of things I distinctly remember setting aside to be taken to the D.I. (Utah's Goodwill) when I left for school. This was not a good sign. Unfortunately, I was right to be apprehensive - the wrapped packages had all begun their careers as items that I had purchased as supplies to be shipped over to me in the UK in one big "bathroom" box, including replacement heads for my battery-powered toothbrush and a stick of deodorant. Basically, I was re-gifted things that I had already paid for for myself.
(Go ahead and laugh.)
On the plus side, there was an "open now" package in the mailer that turned out to be the Glee Christmas album - check that off my wishlist! I do love new Christmas music. (Mom for the win!)
My birthday's in just under two weeks, and my mother sent a box the day before Christmas. Could be... interesting.
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I think next year's Christmas policy ought to be strictly gift cards. Maybe ones with turtles on them.
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