Eight gifts that will cost you!

I am looking forward to the holiday vacation I will be spending with my family this year.

- FRANCIS J. KONG

This is important to me. My kids now have their own kids growing up too fast, and the Ilocana and I are growing old too quickly.It’s been a while since the Ilocana and I spent Christmas out of the country. Since her stroke last year, this is the first time that I will be bringing her on an overseas trip.

Friends and loved ones have been giving me Christmas gifts, and this made me remember a lesson I taught my own kids when they were young. Back then, when I was still with the garments industry, there were so many gifts given to me by my suppliers. These were wonderful people but they were my business friends.

My wife and I had to spend a lot of hours opening the gifts, taking notes and making sure I could at least call or send them a “thank you” card for their thoughtfulness. There was one interesting observation I made about the gifts I received and the givers who gave them: the bigger the business transaction, the more expensive the gift. But these were “business gifts.”

I remember one evening when I pulled my wife close and said, “Sweetheart, these are wonderful people, but they are our business friends. Never forget that. They remember us because of the business we give them — and the moment we stop doing business with them, they will forget us.”

The Ilocana smiled. She understood.

It’s been years now. I have left the industry. Most of the Christmas gifts stopped coming the first year I left the company.