theodysseyonline.com
So my wife's birthday is under two months away and the one thoughtful gift that I'd already purchased for her kinda already has made it into her possession. Normally we "play by the rules" in that regards with presents only able to be opened on the actual birthday but given her recent health issues, we figured that delayed gratification was something that didn't suit us at this point in time.
The best gifts are those that convey thought. I would also say that the better gifts necessarily don't cost much. Money is easily thrown around and, in my experience, acts to cheapen the gift in reality. An expensive gift that was easily obtained can act to convey the opposite message to what you'd expect. An over-compensation.
If you necessarily limit the money and instead focus on the effort, you'll end up with a much more meaningful message and a gift that's likely to be remembered for far longer than something with a big receipt. My putting effort into a gift, you communicate that you listen, that when the gift's recipient speaks, they're listened to. I'll give you an example...
OK, so here's the secret.
So my better half is a big fan of Hercule Poirot, the Agatha Christie character played best by English actor David Suchet.
thedwsblog.com
Now my wife had this idea of hosting a murder mystery evening on our acreage here. What a cool idea right? There are companies that provide this service. They can provide actors, they provide a plot, they come to your house and set everything up for you and your friends to participate in a murder mystery. Problem is, you need a minimum number of participants and, as my regular readers will be aware, we're particular with our friends - preferring quality over quantity. Our true friends are few and geographically dispersed so this was not a practical undertaking.
... disappointing ...
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Then an idea popped into my mind. As my wife was accepting that she couldn't have her Poirot themed murder mystery, I thought about how cool it would be to write to David and ask him to author a little letter for her birthday, sign it and send it to her. It would be a pretty neat consolation to receive birthday wishes from the actual actor that we wanted to mimic at our mystery event.
It's an arduous undertaking that I'm in the process of trying to implement but I think it will blow her socks off. Why? Because it is a targeted idea that focuses on her interests and takes a lot of effort and planning to implement, not because of it's monetary value.
Focus on this for the best gifts. It takes effort and time but it will yield a result that is of significant value; sure to strengthen the relationship with the gift's recipient.
With me luck with getting in contact with David!