Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Husband gave me...

a Christmas present last night. He told me about two weeks ago that he had a surprise for me, meaning something not on my list and not something I'd all ready purchased for myself and said was from him. Anyone else do that?

The idea that he had a surprise for me was a surprise because many galaxies ago I told him that my pettiest peeve of all was being asked what I wanted, then telling someone exactly what I wanted for Christmas, birthday, Mother's Day, etc and then receiving something exactly opposite.

Don't misunderstand. I love surprises. However, when someone asks me what I like--the green chair or the red chair--and I tell them the red chair, then don't be surprised in return when upon receipt of the green chair, I express disappointment. I was upfront with my answer.

After a couple of gift giving opportunities where this communication snafulazzle occurred, we got it straight with one another and have lived very happily in giving and receiving gifts. Even surprises. So to hear from Husband that he had not only attended to my list--thankyouverymuch--but had also gone the extra mile....

Well, color me excited. Plus, the other gift giving "rule" in our marriage is that surprises must always come with hints. Obscure, ridiculous, riddles, vague, subtle, whatever but definitely hints. I can ask for one a day but no more.

These were the hints:

1. You can't take it with you.

2. It's not wrapped.

3. It could be too risky.

4. Your parents will want to see it.

Now, #3 plus #4 made me a little nervous because my parents were here last night when he gave it to me. Want to know what it was?

[caption id="attachment_816" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Christmas present"]Christmas present[/caption]

This is it. My apologies to photo people for the poor photo representation. I snapped this with my Macbook iPhoto because I can't find the camera. So that Macbook glare is not actually in the picture. Enough caveat.

IT'S MY PRESENT! This is an old, really old window frame that my mother-in-law used to have in their childhood home to display the boys' school pictures. She gave it to us years ago but we had not done anything with it. Husband took our roll of Williamsburg pictures and painstakingly cropped and printed these 9 pictures from our trip and placed them in the frame.

It looks amazing and is such a sweet chronicle of our trip. And I know the time it took Husband to do this while late at work was not small. I'm so grateful for his thoughtfulness of this surprise.

6 comments:

  1. Now that is a very thoughtful wonderful gift!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a sweet surprise! And yes, both Andy and I purchase things for ourselves and then say it was from the other one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now THAT was a 'complete thought'--thoughtful and sweet. He gets the prize for most thoughtful gift! : D

    ReplyDelete
  4. [...] a gift certificate for a honey baked ham which will feed my family plus this Christmas. 6. My surprise present from Husband. 7. Having two nights cold enough to have a fire after days of above average warm [...]

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love those kinds of presents from my hubs! Thoughtful, insightful, creative, filled with love, almost always inexpensive and sometimes even FREE!

    Merry Christmas late!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You and I are kindred spirits on the whole giving-me-exactly-what-I-told-you deal. Thus surprises are few! What a great gift and a good man who gave it!

    ReplyDelete