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Belated Birthdays are the Best

I have a couple of friends that I talk to on the phone pretty much every day. One of them is my jewelry store friend, Jill. Sometimes we do miss talking for a day or two, and then when we catch up we have talked for an hour. Or two. The weird thing is, we don't actually see one another that often. Generally, we'll run into each other at church once a week. But if one of our kids is sick, or if somebody is traveling or has a scheduling conflict, we often go quite a while without actually laying eyes on each other.

BUT, we faithfully exchange birthday gifts. Mine is April 29; hers is June 10. The problem is, we insist on exchanging the gifts in style. No meeting up and handing off. No dropping by the house to present the gift. It has to be done over brunch, lunch, a shopping day, or something equally deserving of the friendship we share. As a result, the gifts are exchanged long after the actual event has passed. We do purchase the gifts well before the arrival date of the birthday, but he hold on to them. Indefinitely. And look forward to exchanging. And talk about it. A lot. We plan. We look at the calendar. But we never pick a date to exchange. I finally got my gift from her in November. So as not to put her to shame, I offered to wait a while until sufficient time had passed to give the gift I had for her. So she's getting it today. Over lunch. Which we planned on Monday.

I'm considering this. I think I'll tell her that I decided to skip last year's birthday gift, and this one is just extra early, a whole four months before her next birthday. Nah--it gives us something to look forward to. And I haven't even told you about how we do Christmas.

Comments

Anonymous said…
So Jen?... are you going to tell us? Come on, how do you do Christmas? I gots ta know! :o)
- Debbie Stewart
2/09/2006 10:25 AM
Suburban Turmoil said…
That's so cool. I need to start up some new traditions with my friends here in town.
2/09/2006 1:50 PM
Janet said…
I have friends like this too. We still trade gifts because it's tradition. Truth be told, I don't think either of us wants to be the first one to end it.
2/09/2006 7:23 PM
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