For all the hassles of the holiday season, from consumerism to the earwormiest music of all through the social jujitsu of figuring out who will be offended if you offer the wrong hearty greeting, there are a few constants. One of the greatest is that warm feeling when you realize you got someone exactly what they wanted (or, even better, something they love but never even considered that they might want.) I’ve successfully surprised my wife a time or two, but I will probably never be able to overmatch the year where she pooled all her holiday money with friends and family to buy me a much-needed new car. Still, I’ll keep trying to compete with that moment for, as the cliché would have it, it is better to give than to receive, especially in rugby. This, in turn, begs a query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) can’t believe Stephen sold his hair to get me this watch fob, asking: What’s the best gift you’ve ever given?
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It wasn’t Christmas, but my friend’s daughter’s birthday, but I got her a pile of Sharpies and a Moleskine sketchbook. She declared it the “Best present ever.” :)
My brother tells me it’s the Essential Power-Man and Iron Fist trade that I got him for his birthday(Thanks Matthew).
I’m hoping that my sister will lover her Marauders’ Map.
But my favourite is the time my brother and I were like 12 and 14 and we saved up like $200 to give to our mother, it was a big deal for us both.
I once gave a girl the last ever copy of the first print run of 3D6 in order…
I’m told it is the time I got that little girl home.
Back when I was 20, it was just a couple days before Christmas and I was just out and about, and there was this 13 year old girl who looked pretty upset, and I thought she might be homeless. I approached her to ask if she was okay, see if maybe I could help out with buying her a bite to eat if she was indeed homeless. She seemed frightened and looked on the verge of tears, so I walked with her to the nearby Steak N Shake and got her something to eat.
She told me she’d run away from home about a week or two before to meet her apparent online boyfriend, only to arrive and find out he had a different real girlfriend. She had spent all her money getting out here and was terrified of calling her parents in case they were angry, or worse didn’t want her to come home.
I talked to her for a good while and eventually convinced her to call her parents, then sat with her while waiting for them to drive the almost 5 hour trip to come pick her up.
All I did was try to help a kid who looked hungry get a bite to eat, then sat with her so she wasn’t scared, but her family makes it sound like I charged in and rescued her from Jabba’s dungeon or something. They still send me Christmas gifts and keep in contact with me, and the girl has been like a little sister to me ever since.