My Own Christmas Elf

Hubby and I love Christmas. We love the holiday spirit, the nutcrackers, the lit tree, the cookies, the egg nog. We love buying gifts for people and we love receiving gifts. I know there are many people out there who struggle during the holidays and that when the economy is bad they decide to not buy each other anything. I can honestly tell you that a Christmas without any presents to open could potentially ruin an otherwise happy year for us.

 

Now, don’t misunderstand this, I’m not a grubby, money hungry, bitch who only cares about material items (I’m a bitch.. for totally different reasons!!)

 

I just think that gift giving is part of the spirit of Christmas and I get huge satisfaction in buying someone the perfect present. Suffice to say this means that I hate when people ask me for a wish list for the holiday. I’d much rather you put some thought into buying me a present than check a box off of a list of items I’ve written out for you. It truly is the thought that counts…. So long as that thought results in something that I can unwrap on Christmas morning… (ok, maybe I am a bitch!) If I’m not explaining this well.. I honestly feel that if you are buying me an item off of my request list or I’m shopping with you and I help you pick it out and watch you buy it, some of the magic of Christmas is lost for me. I could have just as easily gone out the day after Christmas and bought the item for myself.

 

Now, maybe you’re thinking that this is the problem with America.. we’ve totally commercialized the holiday. Maybe you’re thinking that people really just want to make sure they get me items that I like and they’re going out of their way to do so when they ask for a wish list. Maybe you just think I’m a horrible person since I seem to be only focused on the materialism of the morning.

 

But, maybe you understand that I really just like to be surprised. I like to wake up Christmas day with the excitement of my childhood. I like to wonder what Santa has put under my tree. I like the magic and uncertainty of what’s in all those packages. It’s part of what makes Christmas my favorite holiday! And something that simply can’t be satisfied by a $100 bill in my stocking.

 

I’m honestly appreciative of any gifts I receive.. but there’s that part of me that still has sugar plums dancing in my head and I never want to become one of those cranky adults who loses the magic of Christmas.

 

With all this being said…. I’m sure you were hoping I was headed somewhere with this…..

 

Hubby is a generally a really good gift giver (hold on.. let’s pause for a moment – yes, that was just a compliment I threw at hubby!!). I know I’ve mentioned in the past that he does, on occasion, try to squeeze in a gift for me.. that’s really a gift for himself (see HERE or HERE). And, I know I’ve mentioned countless times that he never, ever listens to me. BUT I will say, that he does actually mentally file away tidbits of information from me throughout the year to buy me items I may have expressed interest in months ago and, he takes snippets of things I say to buy me some great Christmas presents.

 

He listens.. just like the Elf on the Shelf does. And he watches (contrary to having Selective Vision) so that he can make Christmas morning special for me.

 

It’s his methods with these gifts prior to Christmas morning that are subject to debate.

 

This, my dear blog readers, is my hubby’s hidden stash of gifts for me.

These boxes are on a sofa, in a spare room upstairs. Notice the strategic placement of the couch pillow to cover the smaller boxes.

About a week or so ago I’m straightening up around the house.. which of course means that I’m in and out of almost every room. Some of these rooms hubby NEVER enters. And, I’m not kidding on this, I often think he forgets that we have spare rooms upstairs. Hubby occupies 5 rooms in our 15 (ish) room house (if you include all the separate basement rooms).  He literally probably only enters the kitchen, the family room, the bedroom, the bathroom & the man cave. So, it’s incredibly easy to hide Christmas gifts for hubby. Apparently not so much for me…….

So, I say to hubby “What’s with this pile of boxes.. are they Christmas presents?
Hubby: “Yes.”
Me: “And, this was the best you could do to hide them?”
Hubby: “Well, you go in all the rooms in the house…. Where could I possibly put them so that you didn’t see them?”
Me: “I’m not really sure, but the obvious choice might not have been smack on the sofa in a room that I go into regularly”
Hubby: “That’s why I covered them with the pillow”
Me: “Ahhhhh… you’re always thinking aren’t you!”
Hubby: “Well, this way you can’t read any of the shipping labels” (remember hubby’s favorite store is Amazon!)
Me: “No, I suppose I can’t… you’re brilliant attempt to camouflage is impressive”
Hubby: “Well, I had no other ideas… you go everywhere in this house”
Me: “Are you admitting that you do nothing in all those other rooms?
Hubby: “Well, there’s no reason to go into any of them”
Me: “Oh that’s right… I forgot that the fairies take care of all those rooms….”

Now, I feel that I need to let you all in on a secret… our house has no shortage of storage. We have more closets than any family should be able to fill. We have a 2 car garage. We have a full basement with 4 different rooms plus a laundry room. And, we have a full attic. But hubby “couldn’t find any place in the house that I don’t go.” Which apparently translated to the grand master plan of: Hiding Items In Plain Sight.

 

I suppose I only need to pass this room another 50 or so times until Christmas morning. And the good news is that I’ve finally outgrown snooping. Hubby’s lucky ‘cause if this was 30 years ago…. he could have buried the gifts underneath the furnace, piled with 15 different couch pillows (yes – I know this is a fire hazard!) and I would have located them, unwrapped them, and rewrapped them all before Christmas morning! It’s good to know that in some ways I truly have become an adult! Now, if only we could get hubby to do a little bit of growing up… maybe he could help those fairies clean some of those “other” rooms!