@DrWorm The surprise can be in their lack of expectation of actually getting it. That’s always what works for me - and it doesn’t happen anywhere near often enough, For Reasons.
My mom lost an old cookbook she’d been given when she first moved out of her parents house. I managed to track down a lightly used copy of the same edition on eBay and gave it to her as an extra one more thing on Christmas morning.
@hchavers Gudonya! I try to pay attention, too. The challenge is figuring out what they want when there are few or no actual clues. Sadly, I am guilty of being like that; I no longer say or do anything that might actually point someone at an item I’d want, because of the history of inappropriate substitutions. (Including several of the “this one had a higher rating” variety when the “better” item was afflicted with a misfeature that made it far less useful than the Brute Force And Simplicity version I had explicitly flagged.)
For close family members, I strive for at least one of each.
For extended family members, I used to try for a surprise, but in recent years, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t really know them well enough to pull that off. I am going for something straight off their Amazon wish list.
Why not both?
@werehatrack The only way I “know” it is something they will like is if it is something they explicitly said they wanted, rendering it a non-surprise.
@DrWorm The surprise can be in their lack of expectation of actually getting it. That’s always what works for me - and it doesn’t happen anywhere near often enough, For Reasons.
My mom lost an old cookbook she’d been given when she first moved out of her parents house. I managed to track down a lightly used copy of the same edition on eBay and gave it to her as an extra one more thing on Christmas morning.
@lcbowman0722 That’s so cool!
My surprises are always what the recipient wants. I do my homework!
@hchavers Gudonya! I try to pay attention, too. The challenge is figuring out what they want when there are few or no actual clues. Sadly, I am guilty of being like that; I no longer say or do anything that might actually point someone at an item I’d want, because of the history of inappropriate substitutions. (Including several of the “this one had a higher rating” variety when the “better” item was afflicted with a misfeature that made it far less useful than the Brute Force And Simplicity version I had explicitly flagged.)
For close family members, I strive for at least one of each.
For extended family members, I used to try for a surprise, but in recent years, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t really know them well enough to pull that off. I am going for something straight off their Amazon wish list.