On Why Santa Rocks

Four years ago my husband pulled the greatest surprise ever with my Christmas gift.

And ever since then, he has joked that he never has to buy me anything again because that one gift covers every birthday, every Mother's day, every Valentine's day, etc, for the rest of my life.

He is pretty much right.

But he still finds ways to spoil and surprise me at every turn.

This year, as the kids started divvying up the presents, I found a stack of five large boxes in front of me, each of them numbered.

The first one contained...wait for it. HANGERS. (Insert inside joke here) Not just any hangers either, mind you, but the ones with the smooth sides so when you tug your shirt off it doesn't get stuck in the don't-slide-off-the-hanger divet. Very important to The Rizz.

My next present? A new toilet paper fixture for our bathroom. I know, swoon central, right? The one in our bathroom makes him batty because it's rattles around so when I visit the ladies room at 5:20 each morning, it wakes him up.

(Sidenote: are you seeing a trend here? How my first two presents were really for him? Stinker.)

Present #3: A double boiler. I've been asking for one for quite some time and my sweet husband, not knowing a thing about them, promptly searched the internets and bought the top rated one as quick as he could. The top rated CAMPING double boiler, as the case may be. I am now the proud owner of a very small, dark blue enamel double boiler. It's the thought, right?

The fourth big box contained a beautiful decorative pillow that I happened upon last week at Target. The colors are perfect for our bedroom and I was tickled that something I mentioned in passing found it's way under the tree.

We were having a good laugh throughout all of this because while it was sort of in jest and sort of not, these lovely items were all things that we have talked about and that he was thoughtful enough to remember. But I knew he had something up his sleeve.

The fifth box found it's way to my lap and ended up being the last present opened on our Christmas morning. The box was lighter than air and I was sure there was nothing in it, but I dug in anyway. The box was filled with tissue paper and there was a single sheet of paper inside. With a picture of us smack dab in the middle of it. And the New York City skyline behind us.

EEEEEEEEK!

Yep, we are headed to New York City for Spring Break AND my 36th birthday and I couldn't be more excited. We've been talking about it for months as Brad's little sister lives there but, just like with the house, we decided against it for now and put it on the back burner. But my husband, that sweet, sweet man who knows me so well, went ahead and bought our tickets, arranged for the care of our kids and knocked my socks off once again. I've been daydreaming about it ever since. It's going to be fantastic.

To top it all off, our fellow travel partners in crime, who also have family in the big city, will be heading out with us, making it all that much better. They'll be staying in Manhattan at his brother's; we'll be staying in Harlem with Brad's sister. And the entire city will be ours for the taking.

Thanks Bug. I don't know how you always manage to do it, but you continue to make my dreams come true. I can't wait to see it all with you.

Merry Christmas!