Mastering the Art of Gifting

My husband has always been an awesome gift-giver. Not only does he put a lot of thought into what he's going to buy, he also gets very creative in his presentation. I honestly never know what he's going to come up with.



For instance, there was Christmas, the year of our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. I'd had my heart set on receiving a new wedding band and thought I'd dropped enough hints in the months leading to Christmas that I had a pretty good chance of getting it. When the time came to open my gift from Rick, I was presented with a huge box - more of a robe box than a jewelry box. I tore through the beautiful red foil wrap to find buried beneath the mounds of red tissue paper, a robe! Not just any robe but a red robe with black Scottie dogs. As I lifted the robe out of the box, I noticed there was something else nestled down under the robe, a pair of matching pajamas and slippers. Rick was beaming.


With my husband and three daughters looking on, I did my absolute best not to show any disappointment. After all, I did need a new robe, sort of. At Rick's insistence, I tried the robe on, reluctantly wrapping the belt around my waist. Then, while Rick cooed on about how important it was to have room in a robe for Kleenex, I slid my hand into one of the two patch pockets on the robes side. There burrowed in a corner of the pocket, was the most beautiful red ruby wedding band I could ever imagine. The entire room burst out laughing, followed by the requisite oohs and aahs.


A few weeks ago, the two of us cuddled up in front of the television intent on finding a movie we could agree upon. We ended up settling on the semi-biographical flick about master chef Julia Child. A no-brainer for a foodie like me. To my surprise however, Rick thoroughly enjoyed the movie too. I think we could both identify with her exasperation at life in a foreign country.


Little did I know, that Rick was taking notes on our movie night. On the evening of our thirtieth wedding anniversary, just before we left for dinner, I was presented with a glass of champagne and a beautiful array of turquoise. Perched on the bar, was the distinctive turquoise-blue Tiffany's gift bag and under the bag, a beautiful copy of Julia Child's masterpiece, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (in a turquoise jacket). Even the romantic little card he'd selected was silver and turquoise. And yes, inside the Tiffany's bag was a pretty little turquoise box containing a pair of gorgeous pearl earrings.


He had to buy pearls you know. After all, it was our thirtieth!

He surprised me with this Icelandic jacket for Christmas 1983 (above left).

Rick took Brooke to Canada with him to help select this coat (right). I believe she was only about ten at the time. They were actually stopped and harassed by the border patrol because he didn't bring proper documentation (birth certificate) with him for the little girl in the car.