Yep, this is the best idea I've also ever had (not sure where I learned it from many years ago - likely a friend) when it comes to gifts. It takes years of pra

Yep, this is the best idea I've also ever had (not sure where I learned it from many years ago - likely a friend) when it comes to gifts. It takes years of practice, but even if you miss half the "hints" given to you, you're still doing really well once you get a couple years worth of notes together. Even those "iffy" gifts the first time you hear them turn into huge winners years later because you remembered and happened across it somewhere. Also one other rule I learned from a friend I've lived by now for around 5 years is that whenever I see something I think someone would like - I simply buy it and gift it right then for no reason in particular. Gift-giving holidays used to be a severe anxiety ridden period for me because I never "got" why we had to exchange these silly things and would panic at the last minute, but now that I've started the above practices my loved ones know even if I miss a birthday or Christmas here and there I'm still thinking of them. When I reframed it into "I saw this thing I thought you'd really enjoy" vs. "I went to Target on xmas eve and panic bought something after 2hrs of looking" it got a lot more fun.