Surprises

Everyone knows that it is common for a couple to be given more than one of the same wedding gift. Some couples receive multiple crock pots. Others, like my friends Michelle and Brad, receive multiple unregistered items with their names and wedding date on it thereby making it unreturnable...which is quite possibly one of the gravest sins known to man. Chris and I were given, between actual books, books on cd, and lectures on cd, around 12 books/cd's of marital advice. Don't get me wrong. I think that everyone could use marital advice, some couples more than others. However, I also think that we have received more than our fair share.

I am in the middle of one of the books we received and many pages have been devoted to the topic of expressing love in the form of extra touches. I thought this was a relatively big no brainer because the "extra touches" are something Chris and I excel at doing. Today is a great example. Chris signed up to participate in a research study to help bring in a few extra dollars for us. This meant that he was going to be gone all day today and tomorrow. I decided I was going to surprise him and make an elaborate dinner and dessert for when he arrived home. I had just finished going through our recipes and picking out what I was going to surprise him with when he called and said he was sick to death of the study and was coming home. He then told me that he and my girlfriends' husbands had been planning on surprising all of us tonight by sending us to a salon and making us dinner. For a multitude of reasons, the scheduling made it impossible to keep it a surprise so he had to tell me. I am not the least disappointed he did as it saved me a trip to the grocery store.

What I appreciate is knowing that both of us were planning on going out of our way to express our love for the other. It is slightly humorous that we were both going to surprise each other with dinner on the same night. Great minds think alike.

Needless to say that not only do I feel very blessed to be in a relationship where we both recognize the importance of the "extra touches," but I also don't feel much of a need to make it through the other 11 books/cd's on marital advice. For the moment, I think we are doing just fine.