January is an exciting month for me. I was married on the 16th and celebrate my birthday on the 29th. If I had to do it all over again, I would choose a different month to get married. That way my darling husband wouldn’t think he could get away with just one combination present.
Now before you accuse me of being a golddigger let me explain. I LOVE presents! I love the thrill of unwrapping a package and finding a box to open. I’m less concerned with what’s in the box than I am with the box itself. I like lots of pretty tissue paper that I have to dig through to find the “gift”. It’s the little girl in me that comes out twice a year .
At the beginning of our marriage, I always received two separate gifts. But one year, something happened that ended that tradition. My husband, (who always means well), bought me the same bottle of perfume for my birthday that he had just given me two weeks earlier for our anniversary. Only he didn’t remember! The kids were hysterical and he got teased about it all year long.
When the next anniversary came around, my husband presented me with a gift that he said was also my birthday gift. “This can’t be!” I said to my dearly beloved. “What will I open on my birthday?” Being the funny guy that he is, my husband said he would be happy to re-wrap my anniversary present and give it to me again!
I sulked around for two weeks, wishing that I had waited until Valentine’s Day to get married, since obviously I couldn’t change the day I was born. When my birthday rolled around, I opened the presents from the children and waited to see if my husband was only kidding about the new “no gift” tradition.
There was no gift from him and he was nowhere to be found. I felt sad until I walked into the dining room and saw him standing next to a spectacular sight on the dining room table. Not one…not two but three gorgeous bouquets of flowers bursting with a rainbow of colors!
Not a gift to unwrap, but a new, beautiful birthday tradition that has put a smile on my face every January 29th!
