So.. I’m sitting here waiting for my daughter’s clothes to dry so I can finish up my last minute shopping. The shopping in question is largely for my husband. Sometimes, he really cracks me up with his attitude toward the holidays, and it’s one of the things I love about him most.
Every year, he tells me not to get him anything. This drives me… insane. He knows it too. The thing is, he really doesn’t spend time focusing on the things he wants, so he has no idea what to ask for. He spends most of his time thinking about other gifts for other people. He’s so thoughtful in those presents, that sometimes he spends more money than he should on us, and very little on himself. Sadly enough, because I tend to be very self-centered, this is a trait I’ve only realized about him in the last couple of years.
The end result of my realization of this has been to force him to buy things for himself from time to time. But somehow, those gifts that we buy for him end up being family oriented anyway. They aren’t ever really selfishly designed.
This summer, we installed our home theater system. This is something he has wanted to do for a number of years. We enjoy watching movies on it, but what’s been really sad is that it has turned into a family oriented thing. The kids and I use the home theater every Friday night for what has now become a tradition in our house, that we like to call “Anime Night”.
On Anime Night, the kids and I kick Dad out of the house for some much needed time away from us and we go down to the basement with our fleeces and our pj’s on, make up giant bowls of popcorn or put together a cornucopia of anime related snacks (pocky, asian rice crackers thrown into a chex mix sort of deal, ramune soda , once we even had gummi sushi), and sit down there and watch anime on our 100 inch screen until we can’t stay awake anymore.
Not a very Dad sort of present is it?
But, the good news is, this year the kids and I are going shopping for him. We’re going to do it today and it’s going to be loads of fun. My favorite part is that I am going to buy him presents that no one else can use, and it will drive him crazy after reading this… just wondering what those gifts will be.
Turnabout is fair play after all. I do have to get him back for putting that package under the tree back in November.
Merry Christmas!
