It All Started With a Fishing Pole...

Over the last few years my opinion has begun to change about birthdays – particularly regarding the birthday gift. When I first met my now-husband he surprised me that first summer with a fishing pole as my birthday present. I remember quietly chuckling to myself and thinking this was probably one of those gifts that men are infamous for giving. You know - the ones that they would have rather gotten themselves i.e. a leafblower for Christmas or cool phone accessories for Valentines Day. But, when he gave this gift to me he said that this was going to be one of the greatest gifts I had ever gotten. Why? Because we were going to create endless memories from this one gift. And he was absolutely right.

I had never been much of an angler before that summer. But my then-boyfriend (now-husband) spent countless patient hours showing me the tricks and techniques necessary to be successful at stream casting. I fell in love with the sport. We went fishing in the Boise River about 80 of the 90 summer days that year. Both of us would get off work, quickly change clothes, head to our secret spots on the River, and fish until dusk. We would wake up early each day and make bets on who was going to catch the most fish, who was going to catch the first fish, who was going to catch the biggest fish, etc. The grand prize for the winner of these bets would always be a snow cone – flavor of the winner’s choice. To this day this is an activity that we both love, and most importantly, it is an opportunity for us to spend a lot of quality time with one another.

That birthday gift five years ago was the starting point for a tradition we challenged ourselves to uphold. The challenge: each year we will only give one another birthday gifts that you can create a memory with. The gift does not have to cost a lot of money (and in fact, shouldn’t cost a lot) but it has to be something that you can physically do that will be memorable. This is actually a lot harder than you would originally think. It is somewhat easy to get someone a watch, new cologne, or a nice polo shirt. It is a lot more difficult to come up with a gift that can create a memory. Since making this pact, we have gone on countless memorable trips, and have received and given many other personal memory-creating gifts to one another.

It has changed the way I look at birthday gifts. No longer do I fret over, “What is he going to get me” or “I don’t know what to get him”. We don’t give gifts of large value but they have a lot of significant meaning and are much more enjoyable to give and receive. I have since started to implement this gift-giving philosophy with my friends and family and have received much greater responses than I have ever seen before!