12.31.2002 Christmas Presents

"What did you get me for Christmas? What did you get me?" It was Christmas Eve and Elizabeth had to work and one of the things going through my head was what did she get me for Christmas... and where did she hide it. Oh, I wasn't real discrete about it. Earlier, she had asked if I prefer to exchange gifts tonight or wait until tomorrow. Of course, I answered tonight. *Wrong*

So, right after she left for work, I decided to check any possible hiding places. I half-heartedly decided to look in all the closets, under any suspicious furniture, atop bookshelves. Part of me was anxious to find something. Another part of me didn't want the anticipation to be over, for this was truly the fun part. Nothing. I didn't find anything anywhere.

I decided to finally just retire to bed. Went through the ritual of brushing my teeth, etc, and proceeded to the bedroom. I pulled the sheets back on the bed and voila! There lay two wrapped presents just waiting for me to open them. She's so clever. She knew. She just knew. And one of them is in the shape of the new Palm Pilot box! Oh boy! Happy happy joy joy!

But of course, it's not really any fun opening these presents without her being here. That's where all the fun is -- opening each other's presents and watching the joy it brings. Well, this only means one thing -- I have exactly 8 hours to go get her something.

Hehe ... of course, I’m kidding. She thinks this is the case though. For the last couple of weeks, she's been insisting that I not get her anything. But for the last few hours, she's been shyly asking if I really didn't get her anything. I just responded disappointingly noting that she kept saying not to get her anything. See? I'm clever too.

I had to get her something. It just wouldn’t be Christmas with me getting something from her and not having something to give her in return. Actually, I had started shopping for her about a week prior. I knew what I wanted to get her already, so it was easy for me to intelligently narrow down my shopping experience of fighting the crowds.

I needed to get her something that marked this year for her. So many good things had happened for her – so much that she had to work so hard for and had successfully accomplished over and beyond the call of duty. It would be nice to get her something that she can look back at and note 2002 was a milestone. Something that she can cherish, possibly forever (or until she decides to pawn off one day in utter disgust—but for now, we’ll keep it pleasant). Well, this narrows it down to one of two things – a t-shirt with a metal plaque riveted on, engraved with the year 2002 shining nice and bright (maybe from Old Navy’s Item of the Week for like $4.99), or some keepsake jewelry like a diamond bracelet or pendant. I did a lot of soul searching on this one, thought long and hard, wondering which one she would prefer.

The t-shirt would actually occupy more volume space in the gift box, therefore, possibly offering some more pizzazz while still gift-wrapped. And if I got her the tie-died model, this would possibly win more points. But the keepsake jewelry would probably offer more flash once she opened the box. And, the t-shirt may shrink after a couple of washes, but I’m sure the metal plaque would keep its form in tact. Hmm. What to do. What to do.

Okay—so this decision didn’t really take too much time to decide. I hunted around a couple of jewelry stores, before settling on going to Fortunoff, and getting a Past-Present-Future diamond pendant. Oh, it shined so brightly and it just called out to me, ‘Yo! Buddy! Buy me! Over here!’ The store was pretty crowded and believe it or not, with men. There was this elder saleswoman, and she saw me coming from about a mile away, for she honed in on me like an eagle on prey. I think I had that guy look. The look that says, ‘I’m a guy. I know I’m at the mall. I am here for one purpose. I will not stray from my objective. If you are here to help me, please do so. But if you stand in my way, I will run you over.’

No exaggeration – I was in and out of the mall in about 10 minutes.

On Christmas day, we ripped each other’s presents open, and we both were so pleasantly surprised. :) Weee!!!

I know this was mainly a Christmas entry, but Happy New Year too!

Note—she constantly wears her new pendant, and this entry marks the first entry written on my new Palm Pilot.