We started the seasonal festivities with Cliff's immediate family. We had a delicious steak dinner, received lovely gifts (Cliff got a really nice jack for his new shop!), gave fun gifts, played board games, and danced our keisters off in competition with each other.
On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with my immediate family. We ate a delicious brunch, decorated the tree (which I hope you saw on facebook), watched our traditional "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation", and again received wonderful gifts (Cliff got a huge toolbox and floor paint/sealer for his shop!) and had fun giving gifts, too.
That evening, we got all gussied up for Christmas Eve Mass, had snacks and drinks at my Grandma's and then ended the night with snacks and drinks at Cliff's grandparents' house.
Christmas morning was upon us, and we didn't have any obligations until 2pm! We had agreed not to get gifts for each other, so we were going to have the entire morning and early afternoon to enjoy breakfast together, lounge around, and completely relax. I slept in until 9:00! When I awoke, Cliff was next to me, fully dressed, and filled with excitement. He told me he had already done chores, and we should get up and see what was in my stocking. WHAT?! MY STOCKING? I imagined my stocking bursting at the seams while Cliff's hung there empty and dilapidated. (Our stockings are only a year old, but that's how I imagined it.) I immediately felt awful. The things I would have normally put in his stocking, I had just bought while he was with me in the last couple of months, under the assumption that they weren't needed for Christmas morning. I didn't even want to leave the bedroom. I was worried that if Cliff had surprised me with some stocking stuffers, he would surely think I had done the same. But I hadn't! I immediately fessed up. I told him I hadn't gotten him a thing. He assured me it was no big deal and finally convinced me to go to the living room.
He took down my stocking and handed it to me. Okay, not bulging at the seams. This might be okay. I reached in and pulled out the hidden item. A really nice pair of leggings. I was thrilled. Not only because I loved them, but also because I hadn't been completely bamboozled. He hadn't gone over the top. This was just fine.
Then he told me to hang on. He knew we weren't supposed to get each other gifts, but he had a card for me and it would explain everything. At this point, I thought it was just the leggings and a card and a very thoughtful husband. Cliff brought in his homemade card. I started reading it--there was something about me being selfless, something about our relationship, something about things I would never buy for myself...it was hard to read through my tears. That's right: at this point I had started crying. Not only because everything dripped with sweetness, but because I could see this was more than just a pair of leggings, a card, and a very thoughtful husband.
Cliff carried in six more gifts. I opened each one and every single gift was perfect.
Then I started asking how he got all of this done without me knowing. This is truly the only time in my life that I can remember being completely and utterly surprised. Turns out, that day that I was upset with him for "playing fantasy football online instead of working" was when he was ordering everything. Turns out, those boxes that I carried in from my parents' front porch were my gifts that he had shipped to them. Turns out, that afternoon that I sent him all over the tri-county area--in freezing rain--to get a teaspoon of almond extract for the cookies I was baking, was the day he wrapped everything at my parents' house in record time. And turns out, while he was out "doing chores" on Christmas morning (while I slept peacefully) he was really carrying everything in from the trunk of his car.
And that's when I realized not only had I hit the jackpot--and not just the scratcher ticket jackpot, but like the biggest ever Powerball jackpot--in the category of husbands, but that there was also no way I was ever going to top this. Ever.
We went on to two more celebrations that day, and have one more this weekend. I've been constantly trying to think of a way to at least equal what he did. No worthwhile ideas so far, so until then I guess I'll keep my Worst Wife of the Year award on the shelf. Right behind Cliff's Best Husband of a Lifetime award.
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