Yesterday was Chris’ birthday. The celebration involved a day of grandkids –
most assuredly a key element for her dream day.
They brought her cards they had made.
Zak and Caleb even sent in cards with their own signatures on them. Caleb added drawings of flowers for her, so
that was a great present right there.
The second key component came when Nathan grilled the chicken and April
and Christina fixed the rest of the food.
Chris didn’t have to cook. She
didn’t even have to clean up the kitchen.
They took care of that, too. Part
three came when Jachin presented her with a McAllister’s Deli gift card and Kel
told her they would come over and sit with MeeMaw while we went out somewhere. That’s some sweet kids we have there.
Now it is not an easy thing to get my wife
a present that she really wants. The
main reason is she doesn’t want much.
Oh, she does talk about a cabinet to display her Precious Moments
collection in, but the only ones she has seen that will fit the spot she has
picked out for it are pretty expensive.
And I would never pick out something like that for her. That is one of
those “she has to pick it out to get just what she has pictured in her head”
items. I did come up with something,
though. And I got the grandchildren to
deliver them to add to their charm.
First I have to say that three of the gifts
were ordered from Amazon and didn’t arrive when we hoped they would. They were sent to Kel’s house. Miraculously, though, Kel checked out his UPS
tracking number, and it came while we were eating lunch. He and I made a quick trip to LaMarque to
pick it up (Josiah rode along with us so he could get in a nap. Sure enough, he was out like a light before
we hit the causeway). We got the package
and returned, only to find that Cailyn and Nathan were now fast asleep. That gave me time to transfer the presents
into gift bags and write out my explanatory notes. I hid them all in the closet and waited until
everyone was awake.
The first delivery was made by Josiah and
Cailyn. One carried a new broom and the
other had a dustpan. I know, sounds very
romantic. Someone even made a crack
about it. But you have to understand
that Chris uses a broom until it is worn down to the nub. That was bad enough with straw brooms, but we
still have two brooms that survived Hurricane Ike. The plastic straw is still fine, but the
handles are all rusty. And we have one
dustpan in the back yard with a handle that literally folds in half. Not a very sturdy implement. My hope is that at least one of those can be
retired. The last three gifts came in a
flurry. Jachin and Micah and Cailyn made
those deliveries. One was a nail
gun. Yes, I am ever the romantic
one. But hey, she has been asking for a
nail gun for years now. Seriously. Now maybe she can build her own cabinet. My wife is so awesome. Likes power tools.
The final two gifts were identical. They were stuffed deer. Female deer (that was important). One was named Sandra and the other was
Misty. As often happens in life, they
both have acquired nicknames. Sandra
likes to go by Sandy. Misty is a much
simpler type. She likes Tee. Now before I go any further, you have to
understand something. Chris did mention
one thing she really wanted for her birthday. It was one of those fleeting moments (kind of
like last night) when Mom had been up a lot wandering around the house without
her walker and things had been generally crazy.
She was frustrated and tired, pretty much at the end of her rope, when
she mentioned the one thing that she would really like. OK. So
she opened the gifts (with a lot of help from the little guys who were so
excited they couldn’t wait for her to do it).
Aww. So very sweet. Two little stuffed deer. Now are you getting the romantic vibe? Chris smiled sweetly and glanced up with a
puzzled look on her face. Perfect set
up. Time to move in for the coup de
grace (always wanted to say that). I
made my way over to the couch where she sat and handed her a note entitled “The
rest of the story.” It explained the
names of the two stuffed female deer, the does.
It ended with a statement along the lines of: so here it is: “your does
of Sandy, Tee.” Yep. That’s just what she asked for, a dose of
sanity. Happy birthday, Chris.
Psalms 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who
live in it.”
Father, bless my wife with some of that “everything.” Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment