How to Knock the Socks Off the Woman You Love at Christmas

How to Knock the Socks Off the Woman You Love at Christmas on a (Zero, Medium, or Large Budget)

Feel free to send this to your friends, your loved ones, and even the ones who love you and might benefit from it. And, more importantly, feel free to add your own ideas in the comments! I'm not going to have a lot of pictures here, let's just get down to it.

Here's what I would do for my best friends if I were their partners. Partners-if someone sends this to you, never admit that you read it. Just take all the credit for yourself.

1. Spend an hour entering reminders for yourself into your calendar application (Outlook, Google, whatever it is) to do sweet, special, romantic, or just kind things for her on a regular basis for the next year. Examples: Give Jennifer a foot rub tonight, Send August a note telling her how beautiful she is, Let Zahava sleep an extra half hour tomorrow morning, Do all the dishes this week, Suggest a movie that Lucia will like best. Bonus: doing these things without asking for acknowledgement of them.
2. Get her a monthly subscription based on her interests. Examples: many florists offer monthly flower delivery subscriptions. Contact your local florist and see if you can negotiate something similar with them instead of going through a large conglomerate. Or, buy her a magazine subscription about something she's newly interested in like organic gardening, French cottages, training for a marathon, or baking bread. Bonus: tucking a little note into the first month's copy that says "Enjoy your magazine. I've got dinner/dishes/the dogs/the kids tonight/tomorrow morning/Saturday morning."
3. Buy her a gift certificate to a store she loves or give her a visa card to go on a "shopping spree." It doesn't need to be a ton of money. Bonus: Book a day with her close friend for the two of them to go out together and write it down on the gift card. Take care of childcare or whatever else while she's gone. Double bonus: fly in an out-of-town friend and make a weekend out of it.
4. Look on her Pinterest boards and get her something she wouldn't normally get or do for herself. Low budget ideas could include re-creating a romantic photo she likes (maybe a couple on a picnic or a starry evening walk through town hand-in-hand). Maybe you print the picture out and write something on it like "I'll pick you up at 8:00." Medium budget could include doing a project for her that she's pinned with something like "Some day" or "Dream" written on it. Got cash? Take her on a trip somewhere you'd never pick if it were up to you-Yoga Retreat, Treehouse in the Jungle, Week on a Beach Without TV...
5. Do this. Make it awesome. If the whole year is overwhelming, start with six months or have a few envelopes that say Choose Your Own Adventure with $10 stuck in them.

Ok, now GO! I want to hear from you in those comments!