An unusual birthday gift

All my friends know that they will get either beer, a bottle of wine or flowers I found on the way to see them. It worked for a while, but now it seems to be just too expected. Looking for a unique birthday gifts can take a lot of time. Today I went looking for my best buddy which should be easy. I know exactly what he will like so it should have been very easy. I ended up just going to a big box store and buying a gift card. They used to have small cool wooden crate type things to put the gift card in but not anymore. So that was alright but really mundane. Last Saturday my wife was out of town and asked me to go out and get items to put in a basket for her cousin who was bringing her daughter to Colorado to start college. My wife emailed me a list of all the wares to buy for the basket so I went to find it. She puts in mostly Colorado products like chocolates, potato chips, salsa, tortilla chips, nuts, Colorado water, tea, espresso, beef jerky, cheese, crackers, and honey sticks. First I could not find a basket in the supermarket and only a few of the products. I finally quit because it was taking forever to look and be sure I had Colorado made foods. My neighbor was also shopping and I shared my frustration when she suggested just going to our business district and going into the major kitchen specialty shop and having them help me. I did that and it was helpful but I was shocked at how much it expense, including the basket. They offered to help me put it all together in the basket and put on a nice big bow. It looked great and my wife was not shocked at the cost of buying the things there. She goes to 7 or 8 different places to buy all the items and helps save about twenty dollars. Now that is just way too much work. An easier way is just to go online and find a gift basket shop that will do it and deliver it. My wife and I argued over the expense, so to demonstrate my point I found a several of baskets at Baskets by Rita which is a Colorado based company. They have a Colorado wooden crate that is cooler than typical baskets. Even after the delivery cost, it turned out it was cheaper than us doing it ourselves. So getting back to the birthday gift idea I saw the crate and decided to order one and have it delivered to my house so I could see how it looked. It came and was great. My wife and I concluded that they do a much more professional job of putting it together and it looks amazing. Plus it turned out to be less expensive than doing it ourselves. They have a great selection so that is my plan from now on when buying Beer Birthday Gift Baskets. http://www.basketsbyrita.com