Another cheap, thoughtful gift: Ancestry.com

A friend of mine once pointed out that gift giving is an incredibly egotistical process. In choosing presents, we almost inevitably pick things that we want, or that we would like to talk about . Of course, the problem is that our recipient doesn't always share our interests or desires.

As I had just given her a book, I asked if she was trying to tell me something.

Another example of egotistical gift giving is my sister Jen, the family label junkie, who usually buys clothes for everybody. One year, she determined that my brother-in-law, Paul, really needed a few new shirts. Furthermore, she decided that the perfect color to match Paul's complexion was pink.