Andrew's Knack

So my husband, whom I love very dearly, is HORRIBLE at this whole being surprised by gifts thing. One way or another, he will inevitably find out what it is that I (or anyone else, for that matter, it seems) got him before he's supposed to. It isn't always his fault, but sometimes it is. This is not a one time thing, either. His mom actually warned me about this strange ability of his, because he was really good at not being surprised and finding out what he's getting before, too, all growing up.

Here are some examples that I have PERSONALLY have had with this odd ability of his:

We had been married for less than five months the first time it happened. For some reason, he had logged on to Amazon on my computer. Before I realized this, I put an ice cream maker in the cart to surprise him for his birthday, to get it a little early and have his mom hold on to it. When I realized I wasn't on my account, I logged off Andrew off, logged myself on, and purchased it. Andrew was later emailed about the ice cream maker that was still in his cart. Whoops.

I tried again our second Christmas together (last year). I was making desktop calendars for people for Christmas, and had gotten a deal that I could buy one get two free. So I decided I'd make one for my dad, one for my friend Katie, and one for Andrew. I told Andrew about the deal, and he said it wasn't worth it unless I had three people specifically in mind. I told him I did, and he asked who. Cornered, I had to admit that one of them was for him, that I'd been hoping to surprise him. He then realized what he had done and kind of felt bad.

So THEN I was going to surprise him with a 4 pound thing of Jelly Bellies (same Christmas). The surprise was well on its way to being perfect! Except that it got delivered to the wrong Post Office. When I told Andrew, I slipped and said "The Jelly Bellies..... I mean... the package was shipped to the wrong Post Office." Andrew started laughing really hard, especially since it wasn't his fault this time.

I was determined after that that I was going to surprise him. So this year for Easter, I decided to order a board game he had been wanting since before his mission (Dread Pirate). I told him that I had ordered something, and had it shipped to the PO Box, and that it was a surprise. At the same time, I ordered some hair trimmers to be delivered to the apartment. When the board game was delivered, Andrew picked it up and, forgetting about the surprise package and thinking it was the hair clippers, he opened the box to make carrying the trimmers home easier. And then called me sounding very, very guilty. I wasn't sure if I was more amused or flabbergasted.

Luckily, it IS possible to surprise him.

Like, when I bought him The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and hid it in a drawer for over a month to surprise him for the actual day of Easter. It worked! He had no idea! I was thrilled :)

And, later on, when I got him "Steelheart" to celebrate the anniversary of his first day of work at Sewell (okay, I admit it. I had no idea it was the one year mark. It was supposed to be for Christmas, but then he mentioned the work thing and I was so excited about the gift for him that I gave it to him early haha).

And this year, for Christmas & our Anniversary, I hope to successfully surprise him again. Here's to hoping. Who knew surprising someone could be so easily complicated??