What to Give a Chocolate Priestess

A few of the gifts I've received in the past year.

Your Chocolate Priestess's birthday is coming up soon, September 25th to be exact.  As we get older it can be a challenge to choose a gift for someone when they seem to have everything.  Do you go with something they all ready seem to have so much of?  A gift certificate?  Something completely different you hope they'll like?

In my experience doing the third option is generally a bad idea. What if you choose incorrectly?  Not only will the receipt need to act as though they like the gift, politeness you know, but they may have to use it once before hiding it away or re-gifting it to someone else.  Giving someone something you don't know they like also sends the message: I just didn't want to be bothered by figuring out what to give you.

Sometimes what you choose turns out to be good because it's drawn from what you've seen your friend or family member use.  Be careful because recently I gave a gift to someone whom doesn't share his partner's fondness for a certain store when I assumed since I saw them with products from there, they were both going there to buy things.

Gift cards or certificates are similar in that you need to be careful of what store you use.  These days you can avoid that with general gift cards that function as credit cards with pre-paid amount on them.  Going that extra mile to find a store you know your friend or family likes is even better in my experience unless the receiver is one of those folks who lose cards or misplace them.  Remember many business now are placing time limits on their cards and they start to lose the value you placed on them after a few months.

Going with something you know they love also has it's down side.  How many cow figurines do they have room for?  Do they all ready that wine or that hat?  Giving food items is useful if you know they will eat them and if you know what they all ready have or what they really like.

That's where things get tricky around here for my birthday.  Obviously I love chocolate but I am also trying to live up to our motto of Moderation and Purposefulness.  Part of what that means is that I slow down and try to appreciate the chocolate in all ways that my senses can.  I take notes and make posts so that you can learn about chocolate varieties without gaining weight or spending money on something that isn't the quality it should be.

The up side of giving me chocolate is that you know I'll want it and it very well could help me with this blog.  There are two important considerations for anyone thinking of giving me chocolate. What do I have on hand and what have I all ready reviewed.

You could come and dig around in my chocolate stash that I keep safe but then I'd know you were thinking about chocolate.  You could look through my books and see what I don't have yet.  That might involve more time than you are willing to spend.

Gift certificates are great then for someone who has a hobby or passion for something they all ready enjoy.  You show you know them but give them the option of what to do next with their love.  Remember you can get gift certificates for walk-in stores or online ones, you can get them for bookshops and bakeries, and you can even get them for kitchen shops or for lessons related to chocolate.

This probably seems like a blatant attempt to get gifts and while I can't claim to not like presents this is more a reply base on a recent conversation I had with a friend.  He claimed he'd have to think more about what to give me since clearly he believed I had enough chocolate all ready.  I was shocked, shocked, at the suggestion I had too much chocolate.

Individually I know all those words but collectively they make no sense to me.  I'm sure that could be said by any chocolate lover or cocoholic out there.