Wickerparkgirl - I wish I could send you an entire bouquet of flowers instead of just one!
Not that he's noticed, but I'm not really speaking to my husband today because I am, once again, cheesed off by his lack of xmas/birthday help. (Our son's birthday is 12/20.)
Today I asked him to drop off our adopt-a-family things on his lunch hour this friday. I purposely picked the drop-off location that is 2 blocks from his office. I will say that I had planned to do it myself but realized the times are only from 10-2. As we only have one car, I drive him 30 minutes to work 3 days a week, then back to take our son to preschool. On the other 2 days, he has the car. To have me do it would mean 30 minutes to work, 30 minutes back to school, 30 minutes back to the salvation army, 30 minutes back home. So instead, I said, "you have the car friday and it's the deadline, can you drop the stuff off at lunch?"
Him: "No, it's too much trouble."
Me: "..."
Him (rather huffily): "Fine, put the stuff in the car but I can't promise I can do it."
Me: "!"
So this is the ONE thing I asked him to do. He did not spend 4 HOURS researching all of the possible gifts for our son and looking for the best prices. Or contribute even a molecule of thought or assistance to the marathon of thinking of gifts for the rest of the family, driving to a zillion stores, scouring the internet for deals. How about not a passing glance to painstakingly creating the annual, personalized photo calendars for the grandparents, arranging holiday events, volunteering at the school's breakfast with santa and the museum's fairy princess tradition. He did not lift a finger when I was baking treats, selecting holiday crafts, finding an outfit for the preschool holiday program, looking up where to drop off our toys for tots things, wrapping gifts or finding out about the family we adopted. And most of the time, I'm the one that remembers to move the elf each night.
Oh yeah, and the birthday is BEFORE xmas. Who purchased the gifts? Researched endless party options to find one that fit our dates, size and budget (that only I seem to know how to implement)? Created the guest list, found, filled out and mailed the invitations? Agonized over the goody bags? Is freaking out because we can't find the cake our son wants? Me. ME! Me.
In some ways, I'd like to be my husband. The mysteries of xmas (and birthdays) are still there because he is just as surprised as our soon-to-be 4 year old is when the presents are unwrapped and the party kicks off.
If you made it this far in my rant, thanks for listening and have a great holiday no matter who does the work!