Xmas Gifts

Does anyone else feel as they get older that their families are just "going through the motions" when it comes to the holidays.  That people are forgetting what is all about.  Tis better to give than receive and that whole mess.

I may be a rare breed but I really enjoy giving xmas presents.  I enjoy the whole process shopping, finding, wrapping, and finally watching people's expression of joy when they open up a truly thoughtful gift.  Now I understand that a lot of people receive crappy gifts and I will get to that later.  The purpose of the exercise of giving gifts is for you to demonstrate to the people you care about that you do actually care about them.  This is not accomplished through the monetary value of the gift but rather it is demonstrated in the thought and time that you put in to getting that gift for a person.  In my eyes, the perfect gift for someone is that thing that they really want but maybe aren't willing to spend $30 on that particular item.  There you have the perfect gift.  Purchasing something for someone they normally wouldn't purchased for themselves (but they want to).

My sisters give the lamest gifts every year and I swear that they walk in to a store and the first thing they see that has something that I may like on it.  For instance last year I purchased separate gifts for my sister and her fiance.  She wanted a special cake pan so that was easy.  For my brother in law, I purchased a hand drawn sketch depicting Mark Bavaro and Jeremy Shockey from the New York Giants.  I felt bad about not providing a frame so I framed it for him also.  From the 2 of them together I received the following ... one of those t-shirt/hat combos from Target.  Forget the fact that I only wear fitted hats and the T-shirt looked like it cost $3.  Now the discrepancy in cost I think is fairly obvious, and significant, but the I think the discrepancy in thought is even larger ... and that is where my problem lies.

This year they have decided to get a gift for me and my girlfriend together, something for the house, what the fuck is that shit.  This is the last thing that I would ever want.  Now my sister is about 4 months from being married and I am never getting married and have no idea how long this current relationship will last.  I discovered this when I emailed my sisters and explained to them that if we were just going to be exchanging gift cards this year (what they wanted to do) that we should all just keep our own damn money and exchange greetings cards instead.  She was pissed and I was not backing down.

Here is a rough translation of the meaning of a gift card ... I was just way to busy and had better things to do than put thought and time into finding you a meaningful gift so while I was buying tampons at the pharmacy I picked this gift card of that spinning rack they have there.  I hope you like it.  It was between Home Depot, Chilis, Outback or the Gap. 

Does anyone else get filled with the xmas spirit? Do you get frustrated when other people don't grasp the meaning of the holiday?