How does Santa know what to bring for you?

Around my house, asking for gifts is sometimes a bit of a pain.  First, I think it's because I feel like the things I want might be too expensive sometimes and second, most of the time, if I really want something, I just go and buy it myself once I save up the money.

Troy and I do gift exchanges with his family.  We used to do them with mine as well, but we're on a bit of a hiatus because of the economy.  Trying to get ideas out to others in a timely manner was always a bit of a challenge.  Thank goodness for email.  Now we just email our lists to the other family members and we're usually able to avoid duplicates by keeping each other informed of our purchases.  So far it's worked out well.

The evolution of gift-giving between Troy and myself has been interesting.  In the beginning we started with a $25 limit (which I never stuck to :-( ).  A few years ago we raised the limit and he got me a motorcycle manual which was very useful but kind of falls right in line with getting a kitchen appliance as a gift.  Useful, yes.  Romantic and touching, no.  Of course, I fell down on the job last year when I got him pajama pants that he was less than thrilled with.  They weren't on his list, so in his estimation, I should have known better than to get them.

This year I've once again gone "off list" with my gift choice(s).  Troy and I were discussing our (potential) gift purchase for one another and he advised that I should just "stick to his list".  I personally think I've made an excellent gift choice for him this year.  I also think that perhaps gift-giving shouldn't be like fulfilling a requisition order.  I think part of gift-giving is about showing the person you really know them and care for them.

So I gave him a choice.  (He said it was like Monty Hall's "Let's Make a Deal", but I don't remember a goat being anywhere in the room and I definitely wasn't wearing a silly costume.)  I told him his choices were:  1) I could tell him what the gift was, but he would no longer be receiving that gift from me or 2) he could take his chances with the gift I had chosen.  He (wisely) chose option #2.  We'll see how he feels about his choice on Christmas afternoon.

So, how do you do the whole "gift exchange" thing?  Do you have a list?  Do you drop hints?  Maybe you have a better way of approaching this than we do.  If so, I'd love to hear how it gets done.