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So, I’ve been burned in the past by this statement from Bekah:

“Let’s not get anything for each other on Valentine’s Day.”

It was our first year of marriage and I will never, ever forget that lesson learned.  In fact, it’s going to be the first lesson I teach Ian when he starts dating.  I’m sure the statement will go something like this:

(Ian and Tee are at home while Morgan and Bekah are out shopping…or something.)

Ian:  Dad?  My girlfriend and I aren’t going to get each other anything for Christmas this year.  It’s just too expensive to buy stuff.  She told me it was okay.

(Tee drops what he’s doing, rushes over to his son and holds him firmly by both shoulders and stares directly into his eyes.)

Tee:  Son.  It’s a lie.  Here’s some money.  (stuffs a handful of bills into his son’s hand) You go out and you buy her something right now, bring it home and wrap it.  And for God’s sake put a bow on the thing.  And a card.

(Ian is rattled by the serious nature of his father’s demeanor.)

Ian:  But, Dad, we talked about it.  It was her idea…

Tee:  (interrupting) I know, son.  I know you did, but it’s not true.  Christmas will come and she will arrive at our house with a gift for you all wrapped up and perfect and it will be something she’s put a lot of thought into and taken a lot of time to wrap and make special.

Ian:  (interrupting) But, Dad…

Tee:  Trust me.  This is like some bizarre female mating ritual where she tests your devotion to her and your ability to read her mind successfully every time.  You must learn how to do this if you are to survive.  It’s not easy at first, but you must understand that she did not mean what she actually said.

Ian:  Dad, that doesn’t make any sense.

Tee:  I know, son.  I know.  There are a lot of things in relationships that don’t make any sense, but trust me I learned this one the hard way… (proceeds to tell him the Valentine’s Day story).

In the spirit of helping some other young men who might be at this point in their lives already, I’m going to tell you the story of this year and pass along the idea that I had that has already paid off this Christmas Season.

Earlier this year, Bekah and I were talking about Christmas presents and one of the things we were discussing is how to spend out extremely limited budget acquiring gifts for everyone.  As part of the conversation, she said:

Let’s not get each other anything this year for Christmas.  We just don’t have the money.

As soon as these words left her mouth, I lost all track of the conversation.  While I was “um-hmm-ing” and “uh-huh-ing” through the rest of it, in my mind alarm bells were going off and I started running through a possible list of gifts for Bekah.

However, this year, I had another problem:  We really didn’t have that much money in the budget.  Everything that was coming into my head as a potential gift cost more money than we had.  Damn, I was in a tight spot.  I’m lucky in one respect.  Bekah likes to begin planning Christmas gifts around…uh…February.  She’s learned not to include me in the conversation until around October because I will forget that the conversation even happened, let alone the details.

So, I had some time to come up with something.  I breathed a mental sigh of relief and returned to the conversation at hand.

Skip ahead to December.  Around the 10th.  Holy crap, I thought, I’ve only got 15 days until Christmas to figure out what I’m going to get Bekah that doesn’t cost anything.  15 days.  15 days.  What can I possibly come up with in 15 days?

Then, while I was sitting in the car waiting to pick Morgan up from school, it hit me:  The 12 Days of Christmas, right? Bingo.  Wait a minute.  I know in years past that it costs like $300,000 or something to by all that crap.  Damn, I’m in a tight spot.

The key was to find something to do with those 12 days (which start on December 14th, by the way).  Then, in a moment of clarity, inspiration, and creativity, I had my idea.

I would write her a letter.  One letter for each day of the 12 days, and each letter would cover a different topic.  But wait, the ideas just kept flowing.  The topics of the letters would be different things that I love about her.  Not only that, but I would write them on some decent paper (not just notebook paper, it’s not nearly special enough) and I would make each one of them pretty…somehow.

Believe it or not, we have a wax seal set.  Yes, don’t ask.

So, I would write all of the letters ahead of time and date them for the appropriate date.  Then, I could seal the letters with the wax seal and hide them until December 14th when I would present her with her first letter first thing in the morning.

It worked.  Here’s a look at how they turned out.

I was giddy.  Here’s what to do:

1. Come up with a list of the 12 things
2. Reorganized them into the order I wanted her to receive them
3. Started writing letters.
4. Folded them up and wrote her name and the correct date on the outside of the letter.
5. Sealed them with the wax seals.

The hardest part about this project was sealing the letters with the wax seal.  I had not used the wax for several years so I was out of practice.  Trust me, it’s not as easy as it looks in all of those period films.  Be prepared:  You will make a mess with this part of the project.  Try it out on a couple of test pages before you start working on the real letters.

Bekah’s only got three more letters to go.  She gets the last one on Christmas morning just after Santa Claus has arrived.  When I gave her the first one on the 14th, she was shocked.  The first letter told her that she would be receiving for each of the 12  days.

I knew that it had worked when she said:

Now I’ve got to think of something to get you for Christmas!

Earning Good Husband Points is a rare thing.  Trust me, this is a thing to be cherished.

Here’s a great little Christmas story to help get the spirit flowing if it wasn’t already.

For those of you who don’t know, Ian is in a special needs pre-k classroom at his school because of a speech delay.  He’s four-years-old and has made some amazing progress in the past year since he’s been in speech therapy.

So, Ian had a Holiday Assembly today at school.  His class was invited down to hear some of the other classes sing some Christmas carols.  After they arrived in the gym, Ian’s class was invited to take part in the assembly by singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Ian’s teacher didn’t volunteer the entire class to sing because they hadn’t practiced or anything, but she asked the class if anyone wanted to go up on stage to sing.  Ian and one other little boy said they wanted to.  Ian’s teacher sent them up on the stage and began to look for her camera to snap some photos.

Here’s where it gets good.

As she was getting her camera ready, she heard a single voice coming over the PA system singing Rudolph.  She looked up and saw Ian standing on the stage at the microphone performing an impromptu solo.

In front of the whole school.

He sang the whole song.

Hang on.  It gets better.

Later they were invited back up on stage to sing Jingle Bells.  He went back up on stage for his encore.

Since his teacher hadn’t planned on going to the assembly let alone Ian having his solo, we weren’t aware of any of this going on and missed it.  I’m just hoping that someone got it on video so I can get a copy of it.  Still, I’m proud of the little guy for just jumping up on stage and getting it done.  I am told he got up onstage as though he did it every day without hesitation or any sense of nervous energy.

That’s my boy.

UPDATE:  When we picked Ian up from school the next day, his teacher told us she forgot to mention that after he returned to his seat, before he sat down he took a good deep bow with one arm over his tummy and the other at his back.  That’s my boy.