"It's the thought that counts."

I was speaking with my good friend earlier today. She said something that I simply didn't understand at the time.

"It's the thought that counts to me. Seriously. I'd rather have you just tell me 'Happy birthday, I'm sorry I couldn't get you anything because I'm low on cash.' than get me something silly."

Now, I've naturally heard that before. "It's the thought that counts." Every time, however, I admit I really didn't give it much thought. After all, it may be the thought that counts, but think about how bad you'll look if you're the only person who didn't (or wasn't able to) buy gifts.

I had gone out to eat bún riêu (A kind of Vietnamese noodle soup) with a few of my friends, and I figured I should pick up a small snack for my friends who were back at my college. I bought a package of two spring rolls and headed back.

Some bún riêu. Never had it? Go fix that. Now.

I tracked down my friends and gave them the food, but one of my friends reminded silly me that she had eaten it before and wasn't overly fond of it. I was kind of disappointed. Not only had I picked the wrong food, I had also (in a sense) broken my promise to bring something back for her.

My disappointment must have shown on my face. She quickly assured me "But it's the thought that counts! Seriously! I think it's so nice of you to do this!" I was taken off guard. Does that adage apply to this situation? I suppose it must.

If the thought really is what counts, why do we even need to actually go through the action of buying or creating gifts then? We can just think them up. That should be good enough. Right?

...Yeah, no. We should get gifts because we want to, not because we have to. It's not an equivalent exchange. Of course, the other side of this is that if we are completely unable to get a hold of gifts, then you shouldn't feel obligated. If it's outside your power, then so be it. It's around this time of year we begin to lose track of what a gift really means, so this is why I decided to write about it today with that phrase fresh in my mind.

If you're able, I want you to post in a comment below what your favorite gift was. Just a way of reliving certain good memories.

Mine was the year I got the biggest Transformer ever for Christmas: Unicron. Jeez, that mofo was big. He was so big, he didn't transform into a semi. He didn't transform into no stinkin' Battleship either. No, he didn't even transform into a Boeing 747. This bad boy transformed into a damned PLANET.

Pictured: This bad boy (right), a damned planet (left).

So if you have one gift that really meant a lot to you, please leave a short description in the comment. It's good to remember these things from your childhood.