Birthday and Gifts

My birthday was Wednesday. Mary Ellen and my kids made it a wonderful day. We did a combination of things, including having lunch at the Mongolian Grill in Springville. It is a really nice hole-in-the-wall chinese place with good food that is really inexpensive. The people there are really nice but barely speak English. I have decided that doesn't always equate to good food, any more than nice americans running a hamburger joint equates to good hamburgers. I do find, however, nice people who run any business make the business a better place to shop.

Irony: During our lunch in Springville, we got a call from Eric & Sarah, who live in Springville, who we were planning to visit after our lunch. They too had gone out for lunch -- in Lehi. They wanted to stop by our house (in Lehi) after lunch.

Many of the gifts I received were really wonderful and thoughtful, including a couple of gift cards to a book store and Outbacks (both of which I love), a wallet (which I needed), a book (non-fiction - can't put it down), and a MindStorms set from my sweetheart. Some of the gifts were far more random. I know that I can respond with thanks and appreciation for the thought of the gift, but how do you respond when the giver of a "questionable" gift asks if you like it? Or worse, if they had spent a lot of time and effort to find the "perfect" gift that ended up to be something that really wasn't your style or taste, then how to do you respond?

If any of you reading this blog gave me a gift, thank you! And I assure you, your gift wasn't one of the "random" ones. :}