50 Ways to Love Your Lover: 31-40 (GIFTS)

One secret about Love Languages:  You can often tell what someone’s primary love language is by the ways they try to express love.

In The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman explains that if your partner TELLS you how much he loves you, chances are, HIS primary love language is “Words of Affirmation.”  If he surprises you with gifts, it may mean that HIS love language is “Gifts.”

Learning about Love Languages, you’ll be able to explain to your sweetheart YOUR primary love language so he can get better at filling your love tank.

Meanwhile, if you suspect that your partner’s primary love language is “Gifts,” here are a few ideas.  Remember, gifts don’t have to cost a thing.  They are simply a token to show that you’re thinking of that person when he/she is not around.

10 Ways to Express Love with Gifts

1. Notes - Write little notes like, “I love you,” or “You make me smile,” or “Thanks for last night.”  Write them in the snow, on a post-it near his shaving equipment, or in a kitchy little e-card.
2. Wrap ANYTHING - If you’re out running errands, and you remember something that he needs, get it and wrap it, with a note saying, “Thinking of you.”  We’re talking anything - socks, soap, spaghetti.  Wrapping makes anything feel special.
3. Frame a memento - Still got those ticket stubs from your first date, or the printed napkin from your anniversary, hidden away in a shoebox somewhere?  Drag it out and frame it.  He can put it in office or on his bedside table - even on the fridge.
4. Drawings/Doodles - Got a fun or funny doodle you worked on during a meeting?  Does it have anything to do with him?  Share it with him.
5. Music - The police won’t crash down your door for sharing a piece of music w/just one person.  Send him a copy of the song that makes you think of him.  (Recently I stepped outside of my “easy listening” genre and shared “Hustlin’” w/my hubby, just to acknowledge him for how hard he works.  “Ev’ry day I’m hustlin’, Ev’ry day I’m hustlin‘…)
6. Tiny gifts - Tie a ribbon around just one cookie, and tell him you want him to have something sweet.  Stick a bow on his favorite snack and give it to him before the game.
7. Gag gift - Start a Gag Gift tradition.  Choose an item that relates to an inside joke or the movie you most like to re-watch together.  Or regift to each other a gift the two of you got from family members, that neither of you liked.  Just for fun.
8. Mental / Fantasy gift - We all have dreams of financial abundance.  If you had all the money in the world…or one day when you DO have lots more money…what would you like to get for him?  Tell him about it.  “If we ever won the lottery, I would buy you…”  One of my most fun memories is of a past boyfriend who dreamed of buying me a Toyota Celica full of Trident Cinnamon.  My favorite car filled with my favorite gum.  Felt so romantic.
9. Yourself - As mentioned in The Five Love Languages, if he’s going through a rough time, sometimes the gift of just being there for him is enough.
10. Public delivery - Take that “anything” that you wrapped in #2 (above), and take it to his job with a funny note.  If it’s wool socks, attach a note saying, “You won’t need these tonight…I’ll keep you warm.”  If it’s a gift bag filled with a package of pasta and a jar of sauce, write, “Hungry?  See me.”

SPECIAL NOTE: Buy a dozen miniature gift bows.  Stick them on ANYTHING you ever do “just-because.”  Organize his desk?  Put a bow on it.  Proofread his document?  Put a bow on it.  It’ll acknowledge that whatever you’ve done, you’ve done it out of love as a gift to him.  (Recycle the bows by sticking them with scotch tape.)

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Tell us some fun, $0 gifts you’ve given to your special one?

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Read all 50 Ways to Love Your Lover, using…

• Words of Affirmation
  
• Physical Touch
• Quality Time
• Gifts
• Acts of Service (coming soon)

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