Thursday, January 7, 2010

How to be selfish with your wife ...

Many moons and I my wife and I streamlined our giving of presents:
  • Birthdays are special - we get a surprise present and it had better be impressive! We also get to plan the day out (on a neighboring weekend if necessary) and choose the restaurant.

  • Christmas is a time for buying our own c.$100 present and hiding it under the tree. Every Christmas morning I find out what I bought for Belinda for that year and (surprise surprise) it's always exactly what she wanted. And vice versa of course ...

  • Wedding Anniversary is for jointly buying a large present that we've decided on during the year ... a new TV cabinet ... a weekend away etc. No surprises here but a lot of satisfaction.

  • Valentine Day is just a plot by the cardmakers to get us to spend money so should be forever ignored.

  • Mother's Day and Father's Day are irrelevant since neither of us have spoken to our respective parents for many years and don't wish to change that arrangement (two very long stories there).
So that works for us, and I'm sure you and your Significant Other have your own unique philosophy for pleasing each other with presents.

This year we discovered a new way to please ourselves. New Years Eve found us short on a few essentials ... milk... bread... red wine etc, so I detoured past the local supermarket for a short excursion. While there I noticed a number of mark-downs on foods whose use-by dates weren't going to make it into the New Year, and I wound up taking home a kilo of garlic prawns and some specialty ice cream.

What a great feed we had! Number One son didn't like the look of the prawns at first but after we coaxed him into trying one there was no stopping his 4 year old stomach. Sure, we'd just finished Christmas with lots of party foods but there's not much choice in deciding what you eat there - tradition has decreed the menu for most of it.

So that's how we will be selfish with my wife from now on - every New Year's Eve we'll go shopping for foods we've never bought at the supermarket before and have a bang-up surprise feast to welcome in the New Year.

Did you think I was talking about being selfish TO my wife? For shame... I specifically said being selfish WITH her.
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1 comment:

Gavin Bollard said...

oh you idiot... you forced your kid to have prawns ... and now he likes them.

You will NEVER have enough prawns ever again.

We "forced" our son to try prawns and we've been paying for it ever since. We used to be able to have our own prawns and just say "go eat your chicken nuggets" but ... no more.

BTW: Good ideas and my wife and I went down that track but have returned on the basis that buying gifts for each other forces us to learn about each other - (actually talking sometimes too).

Re: Valentines day... there's no stopping you writing some poetry and sending it via email. It might even bring some benefits. :-P