What I Want (and Got) for Christmas
My house is decorated. Cookies are baked. I am joyful until my husband says:
“What do you want for Christmas?”
“I don’t need anything.” I answer.
“But what do you want?” He pressed me. He insisted on an answer.
Okay. Here it is. What I really want is to be surprised or delighted. I want to be inspired!
“You know, honey, just do that.”
He’s done it before and I have all the confidence in the world he can do it again. Here are some of my favorite ‘surprising, delightful, inspired gifts’.
1977. Like all newlyweds we were strapped for cash but there was a big box with a gold bow under the Christmas tree for me. Inside was a pair of beautiful, light blue and
white pajamas. I was thrilled until I took them out of the box. Something seemed a bit odd. I looked closer.
“Why,” I asked my husband, “are there ice cube pictures printed on these pajamas? Are you trying to tell me something?”
Startled, he looked at them more closely and said, “I thought they were clouds.”
I loved those ice cube pajamas.
1992.
That year I unwrapped boxes of make-up, trays of make-up, make-up in colors that defied description. There was nothing under the tree for me except make-up. In my
stocking there were make-up samples.
“Wow,” I said.
He beamed as if he had just won the lottery. I had to ask:
“Don’t you like the way I look?”
“Sure he does,” my young son son piped up. “But dad made friends with the really pretty girls at Macy’s and they told him you would like all this stuff.”
Now that we know he is vulnerable to pretty girls wielding perfume samples my husband does not venture into the cosmetics department alone anymore
2001.
I raised an eyebrow and I held up my gift. A negligee. Size XXL. My husband’s eyes got big when he realized his mistake.
“I thought it was pretty. It was on sale.”
Unable to return the gown, it sits in a drawer and makes me smile each time I see it. My husband has no idea what size I wear, but he thought of me because I’m a
big fan of pretty and bargains. How much sweeter could he be?
Now when he asks what I want for Christmas I just smile. Chances are I will get exactly what I want. It doesn’t matter what the gift is because it will be a wrapped up with
all the love in the world. May your Christmas be filled wonderful, delightful, love inspired surprises.*
*To be fair, I have been guilty of a few gift faux pas myself – like presenting my husband with a beautifully wrapped trashcan. In my defense, he had been complaining
about our old one forever. He returned it and is now very careful what he complains about around the holidays.
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This article is copyright © Rebecca Forster
