Indian Gifts Portal sent me a gift in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own. I updated this post 02/24/2016 with a review of Indian Gifts Portal. Today is Day 5 of #LoveBlog, with the prompt Gifts, one of the 5 love languages. Find all of the other prompts in my initial post!
Over the years, my parents told me many stories of their whirlwind romance and 30-year marriage. I’ve always had my favorite stories, ones I would ask my parents to share over and over again.
My parents eloped on my mom’s 30th birthday, on December 13, 1984. My mom had spent years having her birthday lumped together for Christmas. She made my dad promise to celebrate her birthday, their anniversary, and Christmas separately each December, with a gift for each.
On their 1st wedding anniversary, my dad handed my mom a single box and told her that was her only present. She reminded him of his promise. He repeated that she was only getting one present. A little annoyed, my mom eventually opened her gift.
Daddy had given her a beautiful pair of diamond and sapphire earrings to match her engagement ring. My mom was okay with that being her only gift that December!
This summer, when Mom entered hospice care, she gifted me with these earrings and her engagement ring, along with other pieces of jewelry Daddy had given her over the years.
My parents raised me to believe that when it comes to gifts, the thought is what really counts. They both explicitly said this as they taught my brothers & me to write thank-you notes, and they implicitly taught this through their own example.
Thoughtfulness in gifts also matters when giving gifts. This is particularly true when a loved one has a birthday near a holiday. My mother often felt slighted on her birthday due to its proximity to Christmas. It’s also easy to lump a birthday with Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Valentine’s Day.
My sorority sister and best friend Bethany’s birthday falls on February 12th. I’m pretty excited that we actually get to celebrate together this year, the first time since we were at Furman together. Dan and I are hosting a small Valentine’s event on Saturday the 13th, but Bethany & Rachel are staying with us the whole weekend. I’m not that great at surprises, so Bethany already knows I have some birthday fun in store for her Friday night. Just because her birthday is near Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve her own little party!
Thoughtfulness in gift-giving doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot of money. For my first Valentine’s Day with Dan, I sent him both Valentine’s Day candy (50% off) and Easter candy, with a beloved xkcd comic.
For Bethany’s birthday, I’m baking her favorite kind of cake and surprising her with a gift from Indian Gifts Portal, or IGP.com. Bethany and I have been best friends for about a decade now! I’m so excited to have the opportunity to practice the love language of gifts for her birthday this year. It might not be my primary love language, but it’s good to know how to use all five love languages.
Indian Gifts Portal offers an amazing selection of gifts for any family member, friend, or significant other in your life. Not all gifts are offered in all countries, but you can easily look at what items are available for your country. The USA shop has so many options!
For your beloved bestie, sister, or mother, take a look at the selection of scarves and stoles. I’m particularly fond of of this pink and silver one!
Need a romantic gift before Valentine’s Day? Indian Gifts Portal has a long list of romantic products for your lover of any gender. I wouldn’t say no to this personalized bracelet! Dan would enjoy this massage basket with candles, massage oil, and chocolates.
So what did I choose for Bethany?
Since she’s reading this post, I won’t say! But a few options included personalized stemless wine glasses, a University of Florida tailgating set, and this simple personalized tray.
Edit 02/24/2016: Now that Bethany has received her gift, I can review the beautiful hand-painted fruit bowl I picked out for her! I was so impressed with the quality of the design and the sturdiness of the bowl. The hand-painted design includes beautiful and intricate details.
Bethany has been a great friend to me over the years. We’ve spent most of our friendship long-distance, but that hasn’t affected our closeness at all. I hope she enjoys her birthday party! I just know she’ll love the birthday gift I found at Indian Gifts Portal.
Meet Your #LoveBlog Hosts!
Meet Brita Long: Christian feminist blissfully married to Dan Fleck for almost two years. Lover of Paris, pink sparkles, sensible shoes, manicures, and books. Fueled by hot tea and mimosas.
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Meet Brianna Campbell: Married to a dashing filmmaker named Clark, mama to our fur-child, Theodore. Blogger, singer/songwriter, and legal assistant. I love Jesus and cold beer. I write about health and wholeness, relationships, and finances. You can usually find me with coffee in hand watching Doctor Who or Friends.
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Welcome to #LoveBlog!
Is Gifts your love language? If not, what role do gifts play in your relationships?
This is a really beautiful post, Brita! Love the joy that is so obviously shared between you and your dear friend and the mentions of your mother. Gifts are beautiful tokens of love. I hope you always feel that close to your mom through them!
Thank you! I’m blessed with close family & friends. <3
I totally understand you’re mom’s woes. My birthday is January 8th. Exactly 2 weeks after Christmas and exactly 1 week after New Year’s Day. Ugh. It usually even sneaks up on me! My parents have always been really good about keeping things separate. But my extended family often gave me 2 gifts at Christmas. One would be counted for my birthday. Just because they probably wouldn’t see me again for my birthday. At least the ones who lived out of town. I usually didn’t mind though because I still got two gifts. But what bothered me was the fact that it was usually hard to plan something fun for my birthday while people were still recovering from the holidays. Also, growing up, we always went back to school on or before my birthday which was no fun. I would rather still be on Christmas break. And then in college, when I wanted to be back in school with my friends, we weren’t yet. We usually went back the next week. Oh woe is me! haha. Oh and it’s super annoying to get everything exciting for the whole year over with in 2 weeks… There’s nothing else to look forward to all year.
I shouldn’t laugh at all of this… But I can’t help it. I have a June birthday, so I do feel you on the school woes. Then again, I feel like kids don’t want to go to school on their birthday. But it was hard to get everyone to come to a party during summer vacation.
I think you should start celebrating your half-birthday! Because why not?!
I love what you did with today’s prompt. 🙂 I also think it’s so sweet that your husband continues the sapphire tradition in your family. That’s really beautiful and thoughtful of him.
He’s not always a good listener day-to-day, but he’s very good at picking up patterns of what I talk about. So the fact that I love sharing the different stories of my mom’s sapphire jewelry (plus I’m a Kappa, and our stone is the sapphire) helped him realize I wanted sapphires too! My engagement ring is actually a blue diamond with two blue sapphires.
Awww LOML!!! I love you so much- and can’t wait to see you in ONE WEEK!! Thanks for being the best heterosexual life partner a girl could ask for.
I love you too! Can’t wait to get our old lady party on! Let’s see if I make it all the way to midnight…
I’m sorry about the loss of your mom, but what beautiful jewelry to wear in her honor and memory! <3 Are you going to write more extensively about those for your family heirloom blog? 😉
Thank you. <3
I actually think I'm going to write about some other pieces she gave me, although I'm undecided at the moment.