Day 331: Hijacked Surprise

This might lead to our demise, but we like to snack on chocolate chips. We’ll buy a bag of them, not for cookies or muffins, but simply to munch on.

On Saturday night, after you went to bed, I put out a handful of chocolate chips for you down the stairs along with a note that said: “Some sweets for my sweetie.” I expected you to find your surprise the next morning when I was at work.

I’m just not sure how well I thought this plan through. For one, you probably wouldn’t have wanted chocolate chips for breakfast, although you might’ve used them in something that you ate or saved them for later. For another, I didn’t think of the fact that our two older kids might find the chocolate before you.

When you called our kids to you in the morning in order to get them ready for the day, you were surprised to see that they had chocolate all over their faces. “Where did you get chocolate?” you asked. “We ate the chocolate chips dad left for us,” they said. You were pretty confused about that. You didn’t see the note, so it was only later when you talked to me that I was able to clear things up.

Day 194: Roll the Die, Get a Prize

On Monday, I wanted to play a game like Monopoly with you, but modified so that there were actual prizes for the winner. When I asked you if you were interested in doing this, you said that it sounded like fun, but that you were too tired for a long game. So instead, I listed six prizes on a sheet of paper and numbered them from one to six:

1. Massage
2. I’ll do whatever chore you want.
3. Dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s
4. Snuggle time on the couch
5. I’ll watch the TV show of your choice with you.
6. Wild

Then, I had you roll a die, with the stipulation that you would win the prize associated with whatever number you rolled. (If you rolled a six, you would’ve been able to choose any prize from one to five.)

You rolled a three. You asked me if you could have the massage instead, but I refused (per the rules of the game). You were fine with that. I bought you your chocolate on Tuesday:

Directly after the game, though, you turned on the show of your choice and started snuggling me on the couch. I asked you why you were claiming prizes from the game that you weren’t entitled to and you said something to the effect that your current actions had nothing to do with the game.

Day 192: Dessert Nests

I’ve been on a sugar kick lately, which is why, on Saturday, I made you dessert for the second time in a week. I mixed melted chocolate, peanut butter, and chow mein noodles together, then formed the mixture into nests. I put candy eggs on top of the nests and gave bunny peeps the task of hatching the eggs. Here’s one of them:

100 Days, 100 Ways

After you went to bed for the night on Thursday, I told you not to come downstairs for anything so I could prepare a surprise for you. For your surprise, I first wrote out a list of 100 things I love about you (taken from day 57; you haven’t read that list yet). Then, I cut out each item from the list and stuffed a different one in each of 100 balloons and a piece of chocolate in most of them. Then, I blew up the balloons, spread them around the room, put up some streamers, and hung your flowers for the week from the center of the room:

In the morning, I woke you up and handed you a note that said, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”* Then I told you to go look at your surprise. When you walked into the living room, you shrieked with delight. When I told you that each balloon had a love note in it, you said “awww!” and hugged me for a while.

Our oldest daughter came downstairs, but she was so tired that she walked right through the balloons, cleared a space on the couch, then lay down. After she was more alert, I told her that the balloons had chocolate in them. So, she started inspecting balloon after balloon to determine what kind of chocolate each had. Once, she picked up one of the balloons without chocolate and said, “Hey, this one only has a note in it. That’s not very interesting.”

Finally, I woke up our two year old and told her to go downstairs to see a big surprise. She crawled out of bed and said, “Okay, but first I’m going to do a summersault.” (There’s a girl with her priorities straight!) So, she did a summersault and went downstairs. When she saw the balloons, she did a double take, then ran into the room and started laughing and throwing them into the air.

For most of the morning, we all kicked balloons around, made balloon angels, and beamed with delight. It looked a bit like this. At one point, we even made a balloon pit out of our furniture and buried the girls in it. Since then, you’ve popped a few of the balloons to read their notes and each time you do, you give me a very nice hug.

By the way, I’ll still love you even if each of those 100 things that I love about you changes.

*Strictly speaking, I should’ve given you a note that said something like, “What do I love about thee? Let me count,” but that doesn’t have the ring to it that Browning’s line does.

Day 97: TJ’s Chocolate

On our way home from our friends’ house last night, I stopped by Trader Joe’s one minute before they closed. I bought a dark chocolate candy bar, then hid it in my back pocket. When I came out empty handed, you didn’t even ask me what was going on.

At home, I stuck it under your kindle, then waited “patiently” for you to find it. About five minutes later, I gave up on surprising you and told our oldest daughter to tell you to pick up your kindle. You did and found your chocolate. I asked you if you were curious about why I came out of Trader Joe’s empty handed. You said that you knew something was going on, and that you just needed to wait and see.

Day 6

On day six, I gave you a love note. I’ve already given you flowers, so now all I’m missing is chocolate (unless chocolate ice cream counts). As the days progress, I’ll be forced to repeat myself or actually be creative in deciding what loving acts to commit. The love note needed to happen, though, because you’re always telling me how much you like them and how I never give them. So, overall, I’m happy with the acts I’ve chosen. You’re happy, I’m happy, and our relationship is already warming (not that it was ice cold).