06 July 2008

It is better to give...

...than to receive? I've always loved giving gifts. I'm the type of person that not only puts a lot of thought into gifts for other people, but also collects gifts for friends throughout the year. I love wrapping them and I love giving them. But lately I've been wondering why; I mean, why do I love giving gifts? I think it is the great feeling I get when I watch the smile and expression of surprise on someone's face when they open the gift. But isn't that selfish? I mean ultimately I get joy out of gift giving, so isn't that just another form of selfishness? And what about gift getting? I never realized how much I love receiving gifts until I discovered the gift registry. It is addictive. It is a guilty pleasure that makes me feel so so guilty, and last night it got even worse. Last night I discovered the "manage thank you notes" button on my Macy's registry.
If you haven't discovered it yet, stay away, far, far, away. This button even has a warning, but did I listen? No. Before you can go to the thank you note manager you must check the box saying that you really want to go there, and then you can click on it ... and there it is, in all of its glory: a list of who bought you what and when they bought it!

Our THANK YOU CARD MANAGER tracks what gifts have been purchased from your registry and by whom, even if you have yet to receive the gift. While this is an invaluable tool for organizing your thank you notes, you may want to wait until after the occasion to use it if you like surprises. If you prefer to use this feature now please check the box below before proceeding (you can always act surprised later).
I've become addicted and my fiance has too. A typical night of watching t.v. and playing on my laptop: "Oh, honey look! Aunt M got us a Waterford pitcher yesterday, and Uncle B got us a potato masher!" And then there is the unbareable "name not provided", which becomes a guessing game for the evening. And then there are those gifts bought by people who haven't rsvp'd yet...hmmnn...
Are there any other registry stalkers out there? How do you cope?

3 comments:

Cate Subrosa said...

I am so glad we're not having a registry... I wouldn't be able to resist!

CaliOC said...

Guilty - I had no idea it would be this tough, but if we didn't register our family and friends are the types to buy us random stuff rather than giving money.

Regarding the post about your brother -- maybe one day I will have the courage to post about mine, or maybe I'll just tell you sometime.

Ellen Mint said...

We just had his sides shower and my FMIL is addicted. She'd go to target and BB&B to print them out and see who had bought what. She showed me a gigantic stack of them.

I do look occasionally to fix the registry. Though we've already had one shipped gift get lost somewhere, so it's good for that.