Shocker

Yosh has had a growing desire. If you want to go back to the real birth of this notion, he's been talking about this purchase for years. It started off in a sing-songy, dreaming type of way. The musing was always accompanied by hesitation and hiccups, which would quickly kill the dream and move it to the back  burner. But then it would resurface, with that comfortable dreamy feeling, before reality squashed it again. And so the cycle continued. Until recently. The dreamy tone started to dissipate, hesitation started to disappear and he approached the topic with a rational, realistic mentality. I could tell.....he had made a decision. He was just waiting for the cajones to pull the trigger.

And this is when the plan for Christmas 2011 took root.

When giving a Christmas gift, I think there is one goal we're all trying to achieve. That, I would say, is the goal of creating some sort of feeling in the receiver.

Being married can throw a little wrench in the whole gift exchange between spouses. It's almost like a 4-step scientific process:

1) You know what each other needs {....nothing}, you know what the wants are {...ain't happenin}, and you can't think of anything in the realm of realistic that would satisfy both parties expectations. It's a struggle to find a gift you're excited about giving. And then comes the next hurdle.....

2) How are you going to buy this without being discovered? You share bank accounts, credit cards, cash, check books. You name a way to spend it....you share it. "Accordingly to the credit card bill, it looks like I'm getting a $200 gift from Nordstrom.........." Anti-climatic, no bueno. So you find a way to stash money, or conceal unexpected income, or temporarily borrow from an unsuspected someone. You have found a way to successfully pay in the dark. 

3) Now... where to hide it. Because in addition to money, you also share bedrooms, closets, garages, under-the-bed space, attic space. So from the second that gift enters the house, you are a nervous wreck, sweating bullets that he doesn't look under the bed- which he hasn't done even once since the time you moved in- but surely in the next 3 days he is going to find reason to do just that and completely BUST your game. And that.......equals no surprise. And no surprise equals....lame delivery. Been there, done that. No fun.

4) The ONLY problem you're left with.... is you. You can't bust your own game. That means keeping a straight face when compromising topics of convo arise. That means resisting the urge to prematurely present the gift. In my case, that means essentially not talking about Christmas from the time I could up with something until the reveal.  No game face over here, so silence is the only option. Zipped, sealed, nothing, nada.

Back to Christmas 2011.

Like a thief in the night, I came and stole Yosh's years of preparation right from under his nose, went and made the purchase as I jumped through all the other gift-giving loop holes, and used it as a prop for my gift to him. Check it out:

{ignore the nervous chatter and sultry tone}

Did you see that? No, not the big, red bow- he might as well have bought that himself. I'm talking about that 7 seconds when his heart was on free-fall, as if he'd just jumped out of an airplane. THAT was my gift to him.

When giving this Christmas gift, I absolutely had to create a feeling. Because that feeling was the gift. I think we achieved that.


POST EDIT:
How I pulled it off, good question. I must say i'm pretty proud bc I never pull anything off.
1) Yosh was going to get a new car soon and he knew exactly what he wanted, and I too, knew exactly what he wanted. So that part was easy.
2) I got a check in the mail that Yosh didn't know we were getting (due to my HARD work but that's a whole different story!) I didn't tell him about it and the Thursday before Xmas, we called a truce on looking at any bank accounts or credit card accounts. So he didn't see that I deposited a  check and withdrew money.
3) Friday I parked it at a friend's house that we never pass. While we were at church on Sunday, my neighbor went and picked it up and had it parked in our driveway when we came home.
4) Before church, we had already opened all of our Xmas presents. I told him his theme was "I'm dreaming of a white Xmas." He got Lacoste cologne (which comes in an all-white bottle), white Chuck Taylors (already returned them), and a ski weekend (fake. Had to throw him off.) So he was completely shocked when he saw the "white" car!
It was fun!