A couple weeks back I was talking with Steve about his upcoming birthday, what he wanted for gifts, did he want a party, etc...
He said to me, "For your birthday I gave you an uninterrupted day of all the projects you could handle. For my birthday, I don't want you to do any projects, not one. You just have to hang out with me."
He acts as though that is complete punishment for me, when really it's just as much a treat for me as it is for him! But I let him believe that was my "gift" to him for his birthday, at least I can claim some credit!
Steve is not a man of many wants. I often buy him gifts that he's mentioned would be nice to have, only to have him return them shortly after because he doesn't really "need" the gift. I give my repetitive, "Gifts are meant to be fun, not just needs" speech, but he still returns the item. Years of experience has proven gifts to be a fruitless effort for the most part (hence we started the homemade Christmas gift tradition here and here). But a birthday can't go by without gifts, right? I've learned that although material gifts don't work for Steve, he loves the gift of experience. This weekend I surprised him with a night away at a Scottsdale resort, a lovely dinner and shopping for things he needs. He loved it. He said over and over again, "Thank you so much for listening to me." And we had the best time. We had conversation without any interruptions, we slept without having children run into our room and we didn't have to clean up any dinner messes. It was heaven.
We returned home to the kids on Saturday in order to celebrate in traditional birthday fashion and they had decorated the kitchen up just right for his birthday.
Feeling lucky he's ours!
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