A long-time friend sent me a piece of wall art over the weekend. There was no card. The gift arrived shortly after she returned to her home across the country after a few-week stay in my town (but not in my home), during which I of course told her I'm engaged. She has given me gifts for no particular occasion in the past.
I wrote a thank-you that mentioned my future husband liked it, too, which I figured was a safe in-between "engagement gift" and "just-because gift." [I didn't use "like"; I write this friend in a foreign language.] But I'm curious whether there was a way to tell which it was. She's given me wall art in the past,* but this was of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, Joseph).
*Crazy story, NWR: She's across the country, doesn't touch computers, doesn't drive. The last gift was identical to one I got around the same time from an ex-boyfriend. He had ordered online the same kind of hand-painted plaque she had purchased at a store in her town across the continent. Luckily, those both came with cards, or I would have thought the shop messed up and shipped an order twice.