WTF: Lateral Gift Giving Etiquette
Yesterday I got a holiday gift from my cousin. We're pretty much the same age, were fairly close as kids, live in different parts of the country but try and keep in touch the best we can. This year I sent her a box of fancy chocolates. She sent me...eight packages of scone mix....? WTF? Isn't this like giving a musician some BASF tapes? Or a lawyer Grisham novels? I'm a baker. Which means I bake for a living. Which means I know how to make scones and don't need the handicapped version. I just find this very odd -- and not thoughtful (not thoughtless, just not very well thought out). Hell, I know how to make scones and even if I wanted to for pleasure, I'd make the fuckers from scratch. Hmmm...
So I shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth, right?
It beats the weirdness of last year's gift: a check. The cousin sent the cousin a check. Check giving is not in the Lateral Gift Giving Guide as far as I'm concerned. It's only okay for one to send someone younger than you a check. Gift certificates, however, are another ball of wax entirely....
Am I just being a cranky ho because I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning?
So I shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth, right?
It beats the weirdness of last year's gift: a check. The cousin sent the cousin a check. Check giving is not in the Lateral Gift Giving Guide as far as I'm concerned. It's only okay for one to send someone younger than you a check. Gift certificates, however, are another ball of wax entirely....
Am I just being a cranky ho because I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning?
posted by Oy Vey at 9:55 AM
2 Comments:
I'll take the scone mix.
Here is my theory, and it's just a theory (like evolution), because I don't actually know your cousin, but I think that she must not really bake herself, and I think that people who don't bake from scratch at all think things like Scone mix are basically how people make scones, so my guess is her intention was to get you something sort of baking-themed.
Now the check is another story. That I cannot really explain.
-Daximus
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