My wife (obligatory number of years married = 20) and I usually don’t get each other gifts for Xmas or Birthdays since we are fortunate enough to buy what we want. This past Xmas, our son and daughter-in-law bought his mom an expensive 5 quart cooking pot (French) and attachments for her mixer, to slice, cut and render into tiny pieces any vegetable - since she also has bad RA. She was over the moon with these gifts because they will help her with her passion - cooking.
I got her the usual, nothing and received the like in kind - except she bought our dog a gift card to the local coffee shop, so while he is there getting a treat, I can also buy myself a cup of coffee.
Because my wife likes to train all year for riding, she has been using my vintage squirrel cage bike trainer that makes all sorts of horrendous noise, even after grease and attention - its just old, but for her it was ‘just fine’. I have a Wahoo trainer, a 65” flat screen, a great fan etc, and she had this noisy crappy trainer. So this week I surprised her with an analogue magnetic trainer, and she was floored. She rode it today over an hour and loved it. But the bar was already low. She is thrilled to ‘have such a nice gift’ which she will use several days a week. She has probably thanked me 4X.
If I had bought my starter wife a trainer for a Xmas gift it would have been received with accusations about me not being happy about her weight and no-doubt a suggestion where I could place it. That’s why RSBob the second is a keeper.