The Best Birthday EVER
My Birthday month is officially over, though some of the contests are still on! Thanks to all who par-tayed with me! I thought I’d end the festivities with this story…
It started the weekend before my official birthday. A card in the mail from my hubby with a one hour gift certificate to a Spa for a massage. The next day a dozen beautiful peach roses tipped with red came to my door. Then in the mail a 2 hour gift certificate for more massages. My allergies started acting up, and I joked it was because of the roses, but I didn’t care.
The next night a note was in my sink with a “coupon” for the day off on my birthday. Wow! I thought, this guy is going all out. You see, my hubby’s least favorite thing in the world is to go shopping, and over the years, he’s gotten discouraged buying me birthday presents I don’t like. (Yes, I admit I’m a gift snob. I usually let him know if his gifts didn’t meet my expectations. Years ago I made up a gift folder of photographs of things I wanted just so he didn’t have to worry if I’d like the gift everytime I went shopping.)
So I get this card and immediately think about what I could do the following day, on my day off. Then I go to get ready for bed, and I find another card with a gift card to my favorite coffee shop in town. I think to myself, this guy is really going all out and probably making up for ten years worth of birthday gifts. 🙂
I call a friend in the morning who I knew didn’t have kids or a day job, and we went to lunch. She said I was on her “to call” list and insisted on buying. Who was I to refuse? It was my birthday.
After lunch I went to my favorite coffee shop with my laptop and stayed a couple of hours, relaxing and writing as I occassionally glanced at the clock, thinking I wonder what my family is doing now. I was so thrilled I didn’t have to run all over town with the kids, though my hubby admited early when I wrote out his “to do with the kids” list, he really had no idea what he was getting himself into. He even took my 6 year old on a sales call and managed to teach him to tell time and count by 2’s in between work.
When I finally came home at 5:30 pm, my hubby was already grilling steak and there was ANOTHER card for me. Season tickets to the “broadway” show series in our town. I just about fell over. I’d been talking about season tickets for, oh about ten to twelve years now and finally my thrifty husband gave in. Maybe it was my talk last week about wanting one practical and one frivolous thing for my birthday. I emphasized the word frivolous after I reminded him of his Christmas gifts to me last year.
There must have been at least a half of a dozen Christmas gifts for me under the tree last year. Though the more I opened them, the more disappointed I got. Honestly, I can only remember the biggest package, which happened to be a stainless steel sink. Now I’m sure many would love to have a new sink, but to me that wasn’t a Christmas present. That was something I needed, not something I wanted.
And before you write me off as a spoiled brat, you need to know that getting gifts is one of my love languages. When I see a good gift, I don’t just see something materialistic. I see a person taking the time to really know me and what I love and spending the time to find it. Luckily, the last gift made up for all the others. It was a my domain name paid for ten years which was on my gift list and if made me feel like he really listened to me.
Back to this year. So my hubby is definitely winning some brownie points with me…and by the way, the show was great! I’m looking forward to the rest!
