Should Have, Would Have, but Didn't - The Price of a Surprise

When the kids were younger it was much easier to get all of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. In fact, I prided myself in only having to pick out things for my Secret Santa as almost everything else was already done. Now it is different. I need their input much more. I have recently stumbled in this endeavor. I have been in the stores with both children when they have wanted something that was on a reasonable sale price and then when I went back to get it, the item was gone. Ellie had wished for a special comforter for her bed. It was from Target. It had lovely flannel with multicolored, funky snowflakes on one side and snowmen on the other. Ethan had wanted two things, the chocolate fountain miss being the bigger of the two mistakes. He has wanted one for a few years. I have not bought one because they cost a lot of money, are bulky to store and who needs so much sugar? However, when the $80 model from Sam's club was on clearance for $19 he had high hopes. So did I they had 15 of them on the clearance rack. I was already buying a lot of groceries and I could not stomach spending more. When I went back the next day they were gone, baby, gone. I had them check all of the stores and there was none to be had. Ellie was bummed as well as Ethan. She had hopes of being the gift giver with that one. So this causes me to wonder if the cost of a surprise under the tree is worth my missing those opportunities. As I get older and people get harder to shop for, I am thinking maybe getting the right thing is more important than "Surprise! Look what I picked out for you!" I am not fully convinced, but I am giving it some thought.