With only five more shopping days left until Valentine’s Day, I thought I better double up so we can get through all of the love language gift ideas in time.  Today, we’ll cover Dr. Chapman’s third and fourth love languages: gifts and acts of service.

If “gifts” is your spouse or significant other’s love language, I think you’re pretty lucky.  This love language is just what it says—the gifts person loves to receive and give gifts as a token of affection.  The caveat to this is that the gift won’t count for anything if you haven’t taken the time to really think of something they like.  Luckily, most people who speak the language of gifts will also give you clues to what they really want.  Make sure you’re paying attention!

Gifts for the Gift Lover

• Flowers and candy:  If you decide to go with this tried and true Valentine’s day gift option, try to kick it up a notch to make it really special.  Instead of buying the standard Whitman chocolate sampler, pick up some specialty chocolate from a local chocolate artisan like Pamela Pullman, of Pamela’s Chocolates on Alpharetta Highway.  
• Jewelry:  The saying is that diamonds are a girl’s best friend but most women would also be pleased with sapphires, emeralds, or thoughtfully chosen semi-precious jewels.  If your sweetie loves the unusual and unique, consider picking up a piece from the Raiford Gallery in historic downtown Roswell, where all the jewelry is handmade, limited or one-of-a-kind.
• Sentimental:  Gift people are often very sentimental.  Keep this in mind when gift shopping and look for presents which represent meaningful moments in your life.  Consider buying a painting or print of a favorite vacation spot or a DVD collection of music from the first concert you experienced together.  Remember, personalized is the key to your gift giving success!

While gifts can be one of the easier love languages to speak, acts of service may be one of the harder languages to speak.  This is because, unless acts of service is your personal love language, all of the actions will seem like chores.  And that’s the point.  The person who speaks the acts of service love language wants nothing more than to have someone take a few responsibilities off their hands. 

For the acts of service person, the best way you can show your love to them is to do something for them that they’d rather not do.  For example, if your wife is a stay-at-home mom, sending her to relax in a bubble bath while you feed the children and get them ready for bed would probably make her ecstatically happy. 

Pick a Chore, Any Chore

• Hire a maid for the day:  Cleaning may not be a subject you associate with Valentine’s day, but if your wife is an acts of service person, hiring a maid to do the deep cleaning might just make you a hero in her eyes.
• Wash the dishes, fold the laundry:  You know the chore your honey complains about or sighs about when it comes up?  Do that one.  Without asking or complaining.  Bonus points if you do it HER way.
• The Honey-Do:  You know that dreaded honey-do list?  Cross some things off of it (by doing them, of course!) without her asking.  Start with the ones that have been on the list the longest or the items that seem to drive her crazy the most.