My mother, in typical mom fashion, did her best to teach me gratitude. I think she did a decent job, but I sometimes worry that others may not agree, given my propensity to utter awkward things when given a gift.
A coworker (who often doles out candy) brought me a box wrapped in red paper. I was sitting; he was standing when he passed the box to me, and I saw a sticker on the bottom that much resembled a nutrition fact label. I took the wrapped box, and became quite conscious of the wrapping, and whether I was supposed to open it, since the label gave away the contents of the gift. Let me say that I had already thanked him for the gift, lest you think the following was all I said. But I said, "It's chocolate, right?" as my way of determining whether to unwrap the box. I hadn't quite finished the sentence when I realized how it sounded. Too bad it was 4 audible syllables too late. In good humor, he said, "Yes, it's chocolate." I am pretty sure he understood why I was asking, but I had to explain myself, just in case, "Because, y'know, I thought I saw the label that said 'chocolate'...wasn't sure if I needed to open the wrapper. Heh. Heh...Thanks again!"
Then there was the time I was at a complete loss of words when, the Christmas I'd barely begun searching for a new keyboard and hadn't even settled on all the features I wanted, my husband unexpectedly brought one home. I am not sure I even thanked him at all, I was in such shock. And since I wanted to research features on other pianos, to possibly exchange the one he'd brought me, I kept the surprise keyboard....for several years. I believe I'd had it for a year before I even took it out of the box.
The worst offense I've ever committed, though, is that I've never - not even once - worn a pair of earrings my daughter bought me. In actuality, I haven't worn any earrings in years, save another pair she bought me last year that are hypoallergenic. But this particular pair she gave me one Christmas are not hypoallergenic, and not my style- not that that matters one bit. Since they will probably irritate my sensitive ears, I even came up with the clever idea of snipping off the posts and turning the design into a charm for another piece of jewelry, like a necklace, bracelet, or even dangly earrings that I make with sterling silver wire. It's just that I keep forgetting about them. The longer I've gone not wearing them, the more covered up by other jewelry they become, exacerbating the problem. And still, occasionally, and occurring with less and less frequency, my sweet, wonderful, Cindy-Lou-Who-eyed daughter will ask me about them. I end up giving her a lame excuse about not having time to put on earrings right then, or some other thing that makes her look at the floor in disappointment, and I wish she had a mom who never ever seemed ungrateful when she is, in fact, very grateful. So this Christmas, I am going to try to be a professional gift recipient, and say nothing other than an enthusiastic "Thank you!" to any and all gift-givers. And maybe, just maybe, I'll remember to wear my earrings while I do that.
