The Most Thoughtful Gift

Merry Christmas everyone. My last post about thoughtful gift giving lead me to thinking about thoughtful gift receiving. The most thoughtful gift I've ever received was when I was seven, and the shocking part is, it was from my father.

You might be thinking that a father giving his son a thoughtful gift is not shocking, but you Sir have never met my father. He's the worst give giver I've ever met. This is a man who is happy to give an expensive gift, but intentionally does a terrible job taking the price tags off so that you know what he spent. This is also the man who gave me a toy beeper when I was thirteen. If you were not a child of the 90's, let me tell you that a real beeper would have been the coolest gift a thirteen year old ever received, and toy beeper meant for a seven year old would be pretty insulting. Now that I've done my best to give you an idea of his failings as a gift giver, let me tell you about the one time he got it right.

I was about seven, and we were attending the Renaissance Festival, which was always a good time. This trip went from good to spectacular when we were approached by a real life wizard, who chose to give me his real life wizard staff. At least that's the way I remember it.

The staff was short and had a top that was not a traditional grip could be used as one. He was using it that way when he approached, so the staff came to about his elbow. When he gave it to me I was stunned into silence, and I think I had to be reminded to thank him. After gifting it to me, I was able to use it like a longer staff, with it coming to about eye level with me. It was beautiful, and curved, and knotted.

This was the perfect gift for a seven year old, presented in the perfect way. Now I'm not saying it wasn't a real wizard staff presented by a real wizard, but some time later I realized my father must have purchased the staff himself, and had the wizard give it to me for effect. It was the most thoughtful gift I ever received, and he gave it even though he couldn't take credit for it.