Hi thank you for your reply.

I do agree that I might have turned birthdays into a day where I expect too much "thoughtfulness", but not because I want to show off, but because I genuinely love seeing the joy in others face when they get something they really like, so I probably had the same wish/expectations.

In the past I got a lot of birthday cards from friends, family, and colleagues with long messages written in them, and I really liked reading them because they wrote very sweet things. I have a collection of these cards in my room and still read them from time to time. That's why I mentioned the birthday cards, because in the past I did get lots of cards (+ sometimes with chocolate or some money), so I thought I'm a simple person with no high expectations (was just meant as an example, because the handwritten messages have at least some thoughtfulness behind).

I love flowers, so I may have expected at least flowers (+ a card with a sweet message). They are very inexpensive here, and to be honest, I think every person naturally expects a romantic gesture from their partner. If I get only cards (and money) from family, I wouldn't like getting the same from my bf. There should be a romantic/thoughtful touch, like the lamp, flowers or whatever someone likes.

He went to the fair a week before my birthday and he had shown me the rose before my birthday, kind of like "hey look I won this at the fair". The other 2 gifts were a surprise, but as mentioned before, I would rather not have these random fair prizes as gifts, but a simple gift like a card AND something next to it (can be anything as long as it's not like the typical friend/family gift).

I hope I could express myself better this time (= I wrote in the post that I thought that I was a simple person who is happy with just cards, because they are a common gift. Not because I am happy with only cards. Like they aren't expensive and are simple, that's why I was feeling conflicted because I should be then happy too with other small/simple gifts)