I’ve always said to my husband when asked for a gift list that I prefer things with careful thought and consideration, home/handmade for instance.  He’s caused himself immense amount of pain trying to come up with any satisfactory ideas and winds up having to rely upon the “can’t go wrong” list I grudgingly supply him with. 

I know, I know.  This from the very same man who manages to make me laugh (even though I grouse about his teasing that can go overboard and me, Miss Sensitivity on a rather frequent basis, overreacts – shhh… that’s our little secret), has created some pretty interesting ways to Topsy-Turvy our tomato plants, did a fair job at reupholstering the boat seats during the short 4 months or so we actually owned a boat.  I was pretty surprised myself he couldn’t come up with anything.

In his defense, I must say that he was pretty good about involving the kids in coming up with some thoughtful, personal creations; such as the ceramic plate they put their handprints on and then painted, had it fired and presented it to me when they were about five or the beautiful beaded necklace and bracelets they created and gave to me for Mother’s Day a few years ago (ones that I still get raving comments about whenever I wear them and can proudly say “my sons made these for me”). 

But then, something truly amazing happened.  Oh, I won’t just tell you, how about I show you? Let’s take a gander:

After unwrapping this very heavy box, I see that it’s a case of the only diet soda I can drink, Pepsi One, because it has Splenda in it (I can’t drink saccharine or aspartame because it gives me an instant migraine that shuts me down for several hours).  Nice.  But then I break it open and find that it already was opened once before.  Inside, each individual can is wrapped with Press-n-Seal plastic wrap with a Dutch Bros. $1 gift certificate underneath.  Twenty-four (he gave me the remaining 6 after I got them all off the cans. 

This was a few years after I’d found these (see below) in my Easter basket from him…

Which was seven months before I opened this…

a photo album with printed copies of all the digital pictures we’d taken over the past year, with…

you guessed it, Dutch Bros. certificates tucked into several (about 19 in total not including the one in the front pocket) of the sleeves.  But that one I figured out already because they had been in such a hurry to get the gift assembled and then out the door to go play a round of golf before sunset and forgot to clean up after themselves.  The only trick was, trying to figure out how they “hid” the certificates. 

This particular gift, a table-top Lazy Susan style rack of seasonings, was more-or-less regifted.  I’d bought my husband, a master chef (well, more or less, he’s one mean tri-tip griller among other things) a similar rack but several of the lids were broken and so he took it back.  There weren’t any more left and then along came my birthday, so, voila! Anyway, this was the hardest one the boys and he put together for me.  They wrapped the bottles with the certificates and then put them back inside the rack.  The problem was, the paper kept uncoiling and sliding down the center. I was completely surprised, though!

And finally, the recreated picture of the very first time he did this little project and presented it to me.  He bought $20 worth of certificates and then pushed each one into a paperclip strung through the end of a zip-tie to create a colorful bouquet and then used a travel mug as the vase.  I burst out into tears when he gave that to me, it was so very moving.  It’s now become a joke to see (a) if he can outdo the previous gifts he’s given me and (b) if he can surprise me with the new creation. 

Does this mean I’m cheap? That I can be easy with a mere $20 worth of coffee certificates?  Oh, I won’t answer that one!  Only he gets to know that answer! ;0)