I need to give my wife a pleasant surprise. Got any suggestions?

Here’s what you do! anything she does for a chore usually but that you can do. And, take her to a nice breakfast. Tomorrow morning. Brunch at a nice place.

Well, if you were my sweetie, I’d want you to know that you can never go wrong with flowers.

I like @trailsillustrated‘s suggestion too. “I love you” can be said in many languages: the language of clean, folded laundry, the language of a washed car, the language of cookies…

Are you thinking something you can do for her, a gift or a special something? What is your buget if any?

Hire a chef to come in and prepare dinner for you two. I hear this is the new let’s spend too much money on something just because thing to do.

@MollyMcGuire Yeah you don’t sound like a cynic at all. Like at all. And by the way I live in the goddamn ghetto haha. The only people we’re currently hiring are landscape neighbors. It would be cool if I could hire myself really quick to do a dinner, but were going through renovation at the moment. @Cruiser My budget is about 100$ Give or take. I’m not really looking to purchase anything physical, like jewelry or anything like that at the moment.

@whitecarnations I’m not a cynic, but I am a wife of a man who lacks empathy due to a condition he has. What I ALWAYS appreciate is when he does something that shows he was listening to me. I will seldom say now, ‘Hey, that shit has been in the front yard now for half a year. Throw it out or put it away somewhere the kids won’t trip over it.’ because THAT meets with nothing but a dirty look and usually some sort of sarcastic reply. What I say now is something like, ‘Geez, that stuff in the yard makes the house look junky.’ and just maybe, maybe he hears me and does something about it. Once, for my birthday, this backfired a bit and he bought me a bathroom scale. I was angry for about 10 minutes.

If you can show her you have been listening to her concerns by doing something she has been complaining about or picking something up that makes one of her complaints go away, she will love it. Just be careful and don’t buy her a bathroom scale.

I would say something that is a nice time for both of you to experience, like a nice brunch and a bunch of flowers (flowers first and then brunch?).

Is there a reason you want to do something nice (i.e. are you in trouble?) or do you just want to show her you love her?

If it is the latter, the fact that you want to do something to make her feel wonderful will just about get you there. I like @trailsillustrated‘s idea. Make her breakfast, do some of the chores, run her a lovely bath with candles and aromatic oils. Why not read to her too? A book you know she will love? You don’t have to spend anything.

wake her up by pleasuring her

Do her most disliked daily chore. Wash, dry and fold a load of laundry or cook dinner for her. I’d love it ! I’d faint in disbelief but I’d love it! Or, if she has never had someone in to clean, have a housekeeper show up at the door.

Perhaps an hour-long massage. It helps with aches, pains, creaky joints and leaves you feeling more flexible, supple, amorous and really well-oiled.

Set up a candlelight, indoor picnic on the floor. Champagne, cheese, crackers, fruit, olives etc., music, candle light. a small gift, flowers.
One of my favorites. :-)

what @stratman37 suggests is a big no-no in my house. He is likely to get punched or kicked if he does that and I won’t know I even did it.

@stratman37‘s idea is a guy’s idea of what a woman wants.

I say take her to lunch at a place you both would like. The for a walk around a nice park. Then back home for an afternoon delight.

@marinelife Actually it’s a guys idea of what a guy wants. To wake up to being pleasured with a new power tool on his pillow.

@whitecarnations I would then offer a suggestion of creating a gift basket of some of her favorite things like a spa pamper basket of hand made soaps, lotions, scrubby, pretty candles and one of those special hair towels that soak up all the water. Of course some massage oil so you can give her a head to toe body massage so so deserrves.

Or make a special feast basket like a pasta basket, or finger foods again with some pretty candles and wine or chamagne. In either basket put a CD or mp3 player you made with all her favorite songs, a card of course outlining just why she is so special to you.

If she likes to read then get a classic at an antique store or a book of poems or short stories or a whimsical book or thoughts for the day. Or a book on MIG welding so she can start that wraught iron crafting she has so wanted to do.

Just try to make her “feel” as special as she feels to you.

Take her to a concert, a museum, a comedy club or something you both will enjoy that you can look back on and laugh or enjoy years later. Or make it a ritual. Start going to a musuem once a month, a concert in the park or something that you both enjoy that isn’t going to cost you much if anythiing.

If it were me, I would want my SO to plan ahead, order some nifty delectables ahead of time from Whole Foods or some other gourmet market, so as to make a picnic. Just some yummy sandwiches on crusty bread, a fancy salad, some fancy nuts or olives or chips and a yummy cupcake or cookies or a pastry for dessert. Then whisk me off for a drive in the country or to the mountains for said picnic. Then he would offer to give me a foot rub, either at the picnic, or later when we got back home. I’m pretty easy to please.

Doing a chore that is likely to make her smile… Have it finished before she sees and when you do see her, take her by the hand, don’t say anything and let her notice it and be all excited by your lovely gesture! To double it up buy her a small box of special chocolates (Hotel Chocolate are great!)
Just a suggestion… but be with her, point it out but wait for her to be surprised :)

I may be in the minority, but I don’t always enjoy surprises, especially when the hub tries too hard to think of something I’ll really like or need. I can tell he’s tried so hard, that sometimes I’m stuck with the result. I know, ‘it’s the thought that counts’, but it’s the ‘wastefulness’ that makes me wince in private (we’re talking designer touches that will never be me or match the decor, him painting with the wrong color (and geez, I wrote which room on the paint can!) etc. Maybe I need to ask a Fluther question of ‘How to gracefully tell someone that although you appreciate the though, that ‘Velvet Elvis’ just isn’t right for the boudoir?’

I would absolutely love if he came home and said “I really want to do something nice for you and have it be something you’re excited about. What do you want to do (or where do you want to go for dinner, etc)? It is absolutely your choice!” And you bet, I’d do the same for him.

Clean the house, cook, wash the dishes and do the laundry for her.

Run a hot bubble bath for her, with her favorite scented candles sitting on the vanity.

Ask three buddies who can sing and pick a nice canon and perform it in front of your wife.

@mattbrowne OMG! I would love that!!!

@mattbrowne I would be horribly embarrassed is someone did that in person… but:

OH, I just remembered the MOST romantic gift he got me. We have a friend in Australia with a band that I just LOVE! He had the lead singer record a version of a Sting song for me.

Here he is on youtube. Simon Watson is awesome. Love him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSCngTwSOOs&feature=related

Well, emotionally, it’s extremely powerful !