Re; last yrs xmas present from mum

[karmgirl]

She got me a trollbead bracelet which I love but a little while ago when me and my mum were talking about them (she has one too) my younger brother said 'oh didn't you get Sophie's free' and my mum said no and not to say things like that. Didn't think anything more of it until yesterday, got a newsletter from the jewellers she bought it from saying 'spend �40 or more and get free trollbead chain'. This made me think that my mum did get it freee so I asked her but she says she didn't and that it was expensive so I said that I would feel really let down if she was lying to me and she said she paid for it again so I said that I didn't even mind if she did get it free on a certain spend as long as she was telling me the truth.

Feel bad if I am totally wrong but its a bit of a coincidence as the free chain offer is in November and she got my bracelet in Nov last year - I've got the proof of purchase but there are other things on the receipt that were bought at the same time. Be so disappointed if my own mother had lied to me though

[jno]

I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, karmgirl - you may not be a rude person but you did a rude thing (these are two different matters). You shouldn't ask the price of gifts. I spend a lot of time finding suitable gifts for family - but honestly, the price could be anything between a penny and a hundred pounds. All that matters to me is that the gift should suit the person I give it to. (And of course I very often get it wrong and the recipient doesn't want it - but that's just one of those things that happens.)

It really is true that it's the thought that counts. The price tag is an entirely private manager between the giver and her bank manager. One reason for this is that if you know the present you got was expensive you start to feel you have to give an expensive present back. Or if you find it was cheap then you feel undervalued, as perhaps you are doing. And just asking about it puts the other person in an uncomfortable position. Either way, it'll only spoil everyone's Christmas. Whatever gifts you receive, accept them with love, which is how they're given.