Packing tape and a starfish

It's Saturday, and I feel like hosting story-hour, so I thought I would tell a story about my husband, and the way that he wraps presents!

For the Christmas season of 2008, Blaine and I agreed that we wouldn't spend much on presents for each other. So, I was very surprised on Christmas morning when Blaine handed me a very large box, with beautiful, perfect wrapping paper and a bow. When I did, there was another box that was wrapped with the same painstaking care and beautiful decorations. 

(Oh wait, I need to mention that under the wrapping paper was tape - rolls and rolls of packing tape to seal up every box edge. I need a knife or pair of scissors just to get the tape off. Blaine thinks this is infinitely funny because it takes me so much longer to open gifts! On average, it probably took me an extra 5 minutes to take the tape off of each box!)

This continued with 5 or 6 more smaller boxes contained within, with interesting things added into the boxes to keep me guessing about its contents (this husband of mine - he's creative. He uses things like screws, weights, and soup cans to trick me about the contents of gifts!).

Finally, I came to a small box, about the size of a package of cream cheese. Again with the paper, again with the tape, but this time, when I finally managed to pry the box open, I saw this:

Now, this was not what we had agreed on. I bought him a DVD, for heaven's sake!

So, I opened it, and saw this:

A starfish! One of my favourite vacation experiences is  tide-pools, and my husband knew this. I love this bracelet, and I love him!

I don't tell this story to say, "Check it out - I have a Tiffany bracelet!" I want to say, "Check it out - my husband is an amazingly thoughtful gift-giver!"

Here's why:

1. He knows what I like and remembers it (we saw this starfish collection in Seattle a number of years ago).

2. He wants to make it special by creating an entire experience for me out of opening the gift (albeit, somewhat irritatingly so!).

3. At the end of the day, the gift doesn't matter as much as feeling adored does.

And so I wish today...for anyone that happens to be reading this...that you are adored. I'm so thankful that I am!

Tiffany Photo credit

Starfish Photo credit