The best gift I ever gave


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I am the kind of person who likes to put a lot of thought into gifts for others.  I consider their likes, things they enjoy doing, or maybe something that would make their life a little easier.  Ideally, I’d love to see a big smile and hear a “wow, I love it, how thoughtful of you” every single time someone opens a gift from me, but that isn’t always the case.  It doesn’t mean I don’t put as much thought into every gift I buy, though.  I don’t believe that the amount I spend matters as much as the energy spent coming up with something that screams the recipient’s name when I look at it.  Presentation is a big deal to me, too.  By that I don’t necessarily mean a pretty bow or fancy ribbon, but rather the action of presenting the gift and seeing the anticipation on the face of the person who is receiving it.  As I tried to come up with the best gift I ever gave, I considered all of this and the thing that came to mind was something I bought for my husband over 15 years ago.
As long as I’ve know him, he’s always loved Billy Joel.  His music is still one of his favorites to this day.  With collections that covered record albums to cassette tapes, and ultimately, cds, he’s had a vast amount of Billy Joel in his life, and now, our lives.  It was about 17 or 18 years ago and we were living in San Diego, California.  He was in the Navy and away at the time when I saw an advertisement in the paper for an upcoming Billy Joel concert.  I thought immediately, how can I possibly make this happen for him?  It wasn’t as simple as just ordering tickets online back then.  No, no, no. The internet wasn’t nearly what it is now, with Ticketmaster for easy event purchasing.  If I was going to get him tickets, I had to do it the old-fashioned way.  My memory is a bit vague, but I remember it for the most part. It included getting up really early and driving around 30 minutes(maybe more) to the nearest ticket agent to stand in a line, hoping to get your tickets.  I arrived first so I was pretty excited, but it wasn’t as simple as all that. No! I was then given a bracelet with a number that designated my place in line.  Not fair in my opinion, but oh well.  Okay, so I got in, bought my tickets and went back home. 
The next priority was coming up with a fun and creative way to present him with the tickets.  So here’s what I did.  When he returned from his short deployment(about 30 days that time, I think), I suggested we looked through a photo album.  You know, because we were missing everyone back home and seeing pictures of them wouldn’t make us miss them more than we did already.  We flipped through the pages and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t his idea of a fun time with his wife after just returning from being away on a Navy ship with a bunch of sailors, but he humored me. 
When he came to the page with the picture below, he was very puzzled and probably thought I was being a little cruel.  Like I could be cruel, right?

The next page had the bracelet I was given. For some reason, it’s missing. Yes, I did save that and I would have shared a picture if I could have found it.  I think Paul was more puzzled than ever at this point because I’m pretty sure he had no idea how the whole concert ticket buying process worked at the time.  Enough with the suspense.  The next page of the photo album had two tickets to the concert.  I’m pretty I made his entire year.  Oh yeah, I rocked.  I still rock.  Sometimes to Billy Joel music. So, although, this was a simple pair of tickets to a concert.  Basically, two little pieces of paper, but my thoughtful presentation is something that he still remembers and so do I and it’s because of what it all meant to him.  I took that gift-giving and made it into a production of sorts, creating a long-lasting memory for the both of us.  We had a wonderful time at the concert!

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Comments

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