Monday, 15 August 2011

• The Merits of a Gift Shared Over a Gift Given

  

  For the past few birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries me and my boyfriend have shared, we've been utilizing our creativity by making presents for each other. We're big fans of giving "gifts from the heart" via handcrafting, but there's only so much room on our walls and desks before they are covered with paintings, poems, cards, shadowboxes, crafts, and collages we've made for each other.

  When it comes to buying presents for each other, we have always defaulted to search for books and journals--after all, what can satisfy two writers and English majors more than a combination of those two things (plus a card with a clever pun)?! After years of book-giving, we figured there may never be enough time to read all the books we give to each other.

  This past Christmas, we wanted to do something different to celebrate. Instead of making or buying each other gifts, we decided to share the Christmas memory together with a trip to New York City. 

  I slept over his place the night before our adventure. We got up at 6am to catch a bus into NYC so we could be first in line for Student Rush tickets for Chicago. When we got into the city, we were some of the first people in line at the box office and bought our tickets super cheap.

  We wanted to go to a museum and had about 10 hours to kill, so we decided to walk through Central Park for a few hours. We talked about Catcher in the Rye of course, got chased by those pesky pigeons (not even winter scares them away!), and sat on the benches and people watched.

  We went to The Frick Collection on the outskirts of Central Park, which was housing an extensive 16th-18th century European artists exhibit at the time. We walked the entire collection.

  Just so we could reek of state pride, we went to dinner at a really cute diner near Broadway before making our way to see Chicago. We were falling asleep by the time we got to the theatre, but the show was as dazzling as it looked on billboards!

  

  After the show, we saw this awesome Christmas ornament display in fountain near Times Square. Being that we are camera-whores (well, I am. Al for the sake of scrap-booking!), we dropped all of our stuff, threw off our jackets, and climbed onto the fountain after handing my camera to someone. They took a few pictures of us, and even though we were FREEZING our asses off, we were still beaming brightly. Nothing beats the infinite feeling of being in a city that never sleeps and never stops for anything.
  

  When we got back to our university campus after a really long day, we were absolutely exhausted but had such a great day that we didn't want it to just end in NYC. We stayed up until 3:30am the next morning baking and decorating cookies. We talked about how our "alternative" Christmas present to each other was a great idea. We could easily lose what we make for each other, misplace it, or break it, but memories we make always stay with us.

  Have you ever decided to "share a gift" and make memories on a date/trip rather than exchange physical presents with your SO?

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