We have officially entered the season of spending way too much time at Barnes&Noble under the guise of gift shopping. I am not patient when it comes to gifts, either giving or receiving. As a gift giver, once I have found the perfect gift, I am anxious to let the intended recipient enjoy it. As a recipient, I am a shaker, a peeker, and a shape analyzer. The longer the wait to open the gift, the worse it is for me. I've tried to convince my relatives to not tell me when they've purchased a gift for me...not that any of them adhere to this policy. My mother's argument against wanting me to know what's in the Santa-Claus-adorned gift boxes is that it won't be a surprise when I open them on Christmas day. Honestly, I find that knowing what gift I'll be getting doesn't detract from the anticipation of actually receiving it. I get the same feeling when I purchase things I have to wait for, be it online ordering or layaway.
Because I like hints that are more like exact descriptions of what the gift is, when my turn comes to provide hints, I am prone to divulging way too much information. The best example of this would be one particular Father's Day when I was about 6. An eager gift-giver even then, I was taunting Dad with, "You'll never guess what we got you!" and then, excitedly, I said, "I'll give you a hint! It's silver, and it pops up toast."
I'm not convinced that any six-year-olds are professional hinters, but perhaps there are 30-year-olds out there that don't still get teased about accidentally telling their dad he was getting a ***spoiler alert!*** toaster for Father's Day.
