If I had to rate myself, I would say I am the best gift giver of all time. I don’t give people multiple gifts for their birthdays/Christmas but what I do do is give them one awesome gift that is very memorable(yes I just said do-do).

However, my girlfriend’s birthday was approaching and I was definitely struggling coming up with something heartfelt and memorable. I was dumbfounded on my inability to come up with something meaningful. This had never happened to me before.

I suppose I was fortunate that her roommate had signed up for Painting with a Twist a few months before and it seemed like a terrific idea.

After struggling for months to come up with the perfect gift idea, Painting with a Twist seemed to obvious and it is what I eventually settled on. After all, Leslie did express to me how much of a great idea it seemed. So I signed us up and told her to keep the date open.

For those of you who don’t know, Painting with a Twist is a painting class where you can bring a bottle of wine and get taught how to paint a masterpiece. The website the business runs is amazing too. It shows you all of the painting each class with demonstrate for the next month. With the knowledge of a birthdate, I was able to examine the painting and choose the most meaningful painting. Fortunately for me, I am in love with everything Florida and Leslie had casually mentioned how much she like palm trees the following week. I looked at the calendar, saw a painting of palm trees and signed us up.

We showed up and studio was much more modest than I had expected. Not only that, but the class was pretty much all females. It could be that the day that I signed us up was Mother’s day or something but it ended up being a blast.

We poured our glasses of wine and got our paint on. I’m not sure how two hours past so quickly but once it was done, we both had masterpieces of Florida palm trees with beautiful sunsets in the background.

I am not sure I can top the birthday present next year but the smiles Leslie gave in the pictures assure me that I did a decent job in showing her my appreciation for her being in my life!

Monet’s Vanilla Skies better watch out!