Gift Cards or Cash as Gifts??
This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well, but I am really not a big fan of gifts that involve giving me money or Gift Cards. No offense to anyone who has and believe me your gifts have been appreciated. I just don't really understand that type of a gift. So if you are the type that likes to give (or receive) this type of gift, please enlighten me as to the virtue. But first I want to give my case against it.
Now I can understand a specialty gift certificate or something specific. For example last year for Father's Day we gave my father a gift card to Best Buy specifically to buy his iPhone. We didn't buy the iPhone because that would require his presence (because of the shear nature of buying a cell phone) and we were unable to take him to the store to buy it. But we wanted to get him an iPhone, so we gave him a gift card and said 'here, this is for your iPhone'. Maybe I am being a bit hypocritical and justifying doing exactly what I am complain about... I too have plenty of times given gift cards or gift certificates. Like when my wife wants an nice massage or other such thing, I will often get her a gift card for that. But I really feel that in general this idea of just getting a gift card or giving cash isn't the same thing.
This is not to offend anyone who has ever done that or to say that your gift is not appreciated. But often times in my wife's family (particularly from her parents) it seems to me that gift giving is a time to as what someone wants, give them exactly that and if you cannot then give them cash and forget about it. To me, thats not what gift giving is. When I give a gift, it is something I have put a lot of thought and energy into. It is not something I picked out because you implicitly told me to but rather something that I had the opportunity to put my heart into.
So here is my real issue: Nothing says I dont know you very well like cash. Anyone who knows me should know that I am easy to shop for. I am very easy to please and even just a hand drawn picture from my niece or nephew would be wonderful!
Anyway, that's my rant. May not be a very well thought out statement. But this has always been on my mind. I hope I dont offend anyone but just wanted to speak my peace 
