Do you go down the rabbit hole?
Here is the reason why I love my husband so very much. My birthday happens to be during the latter part of the Christmas season, and my middle brother’s birthday is the day before mine. So you can imagine how much celebration remains when my birthday finally arrives. Can you hear the balloons deflating one after another? Sssss.
Now my mother did her absolute best to put on her party face and embrace the fact that there was one more upcoming celebration. Never mind the fact that my youngest brother’s birthday is one week after my birthday. I know!
Just like the deflating balloons, my birthday last year was a bit of a fizzle, and my husband knew it. So this year he wanted to do something extra special for me. Well sure enough, upon his return from the grocery store he proceeded to remove from the grocery bag: a box of baking soda, a bottle of pure vanilla extract, a bottle of nutmeg, and a large plastic bag filled with unshelled walnuts. And as he pulled out the last ingredient from the bag, he said, “I’m going to make you a zucchini bread for your birthday! We can use up the fresh zucchinis in the fridge!”
Now keep in mind the last time my husband made food for me was in a crock pot. It was exactly nineteen years ago . . . and it burned. However, he does make a mean scrambled eggs and a wicked Seven Layer Bar.
The first words out of my mouth were, “But, we don’t even have a nutcracker.” “We don’t?,” he replied. “Noooo. . .” The look of confusion appeared on his face, which completely melted my heart. This was the sweetest gesture ever, which meant more to me than any birthday gift, because he knew how much I wanted to make a wish this year with my pink birthday candle.
So after hashing it out and upon his insistence that I have a proper dessert in which to hold my candle, we decided to purchase a dessert from our friend. She owns a small cafe and her food is delicious. Problem solved. It was a win-win for the both of us.
Sometimes the smallest and sweetest gestures in life yield the biggest returns.