Things we fancy - or fancy we need

Alright, so I'm going to take Natalie's #3 advice, but do a bit of tweeking. Her birthday advice was to remember, "If you want something from your spouse, you have to ask for it." Well, let's broaden our scope to include not only spouses, but family and friends; really anyone who may be looking for gift ideas. I believe we, in the Nordstrom family, have burdened ourselves regularly and unnecessarily by our subtle love of surprises. We love to give gifts, but we like surprises, and the two can conflict. With each approaching Birthday or Christmas season there tends to be a frenzy of brainstorming or phone calls to spouses to learn what our gift recipient is "fancying," or at least "fancying they need." This infliction of stress, aside from causing premature graying, can also taint the daunting day of celebration. This is especially true for me, who, out of all my sisters struggles the most with gift creativity. I have amazing sisters (and parents) who seem to specialize in making holidays special, and because I am always delighted - not to mention utterly surprised that they could think of, yet again, something I love - I want to do the same for them. But I suck at it. Instead of dwelling on that however, I am going to flatter myself and assume the talent does not come so effortlessly as is made to seem by my sisters. I am therefore going to provide something that I would love to likewise have provided by them: a list of simple and random things that I (and Dave, too) "fancy, or fancy we need." This list will hopefully provide little gift ideas for anyone who may be curious or simply looking for an idea of what type of things interest us. We will be continuously editing and updating the list. Now, this may seem rather presumptuous of me, but I can only get away with it because I know my family and I know gift giving is a large part of how we show love and they'll do it anyway, with or without hints. (Besides, I have a feeling the list may be a good reminder for Dave, and so through this facade I am really adhering to her #3 advice.) And so, with out further adieu I introduce a new side column to our blog: Things we fancy, or fancy we need.