Gifts for my Lover...

Christmas is coming up pretty soon. It's the time when my wife and I start thinking about presents for our families, our boys, and each other. Both my wife and I are pretty picky at what we like for our big holiday gifts. I like high priced, carefully researched gadgets. She likes very specific styles of clothes and shoes. These are not easy gifts with which to surprise your sweetie.

My wife and I have slowly evolved our method of gift-giving to each other over our 13 years of marriage. Here is a brief history lesson.

The Newlywed Phase: We would spend hours searching various stores for gifts we just knew the other would love. Then we would have to endure the crushing disappointment of that look. You know, the look of "oh no, did he/she keep the receipt?" These years are not remembered fondly. At least not for the gifts.

The Transition Phase: We would give each other detailed hints as to what gifts we would like. This would result in long hours of searching to find the exact version of the desired item. But at least the other person liked the gift. This did cause some gifts to be forgotten or be incorrect.

The Realist Phase(aka, The Years of Efficiency): This is our current phase. Neither of us has a lot of free time to shop and search. Now we buy ourselves gifts, let the other person wrap them, and try to act surprised when we open them. Have we lost something? Does it show some sort of fundamental breakdown in our relationship? Maybe. But at least I don't have to see that look.

So, what is the next phase of gift giving? I'm not sure, but if I had to guess I would say that it would be:

The Kids are in College Phase (aka, No Money for a Gift for You Phase).