Just One Question...

Do you figure out your Christmas presents?

I do. Even when I don't mean to. I'm really good at putting things together, and it doesn't take much of a hint to tip me off. All my close family and friends know about my "gift." Sometimes they go to great lengths to trick me. One year my mom and brother traded gifts because I knew what I was getting. When I was a kid my best friend, Lindsey, put a walnut in with my gift so she could stick to her story that it started with a 'w' and throw me off the trail of the troll doll ;)

The Mister learned this all too well last year, when on the way home from Christmas shopping I already figured out what my gift was. In his defense, I DID ask for a hint, and he didn't know about my 'gift' yet, so he was kind of set-up. So this year, he went to greater lengths to surprise me.

I was fooled for a long time. But one night a week or so ago it all clicked together in my head. I put all the clues together from the last month and I KNEW what I was getting. I'd been hinting since he and Chloe got them in November. New boots. Ok, not actual boots, but a PFI gift certificate, or a home-made coupon good for one new pair of boots. Something like that. I boasted about how he'd made a good try at keeping it a secret, but told my friend Jamie how "he just can't keep his mouth shut."

The Clues:
I knew there were three packages under the tree, but only two "gifts."
He made a big deal about looking for a boot box to wrap one of the gifts in.
When I changed the sheets one time, I was missing a pillow case. He said something like, "You'll find it soon and be like, 'so THAT'S where it was!'"
He told me to ask off my birthday weekend because we are going shopping for "something" that I'd understand when Christmas came. (BOOTS!)
He told me he didn't really have much for me under the tree.

See? He talks too much! And all of that was volunteered! Anyway, he also later told me that the shopping trip that had to do with Christmas would also be my birthday present. Boots AND jeans??!!??!!

Christmas Eve came and Chloe went to bed rather quickly. He asked me if I wanted my surprise that night. Of course I did :) He fished around under the tree and pulled out a long, skinny box. What? Not the boot box, no sir-ee. I pulled off the wrapping paper and it was the new silicone cooking utensils I'd asked for (that he told me Wal-Mart no longer carried!). That was a nice gift and all, but I didn't see how that was a big surprise.  I opened the lid to find the box...empty.

Then, way down in the bottom, I found a little love note. Front and back :) I read through the note, tears blurring my vision at the sweet things he expressed about me and about Chloe. Then it said "(now look at me.)" I did, and that's when he said, "Will you marry me?"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?!!!!!!!!?????

YES!

The utensils turned out to be in the boot box with the missing pillow case on Christmas morning. What a sneaky stinker! I was definitely humbled in my smug "I know what I got" attitude, and it turned out to be the best Christmas ever :)

So I guess ring shopping over my birthday will do...and maybe I'll get new boots with my Christmas money :)