How the PH locked up the Best Husband Award for 2009...

The night before my birthday, the Pretend Husband asked if I was going to stay up until midnight to mark the start of my birthday. I looked at him funny and said, "No. Because I'm not 10 anymore." When I headed to bed, he was staying up to play video games, but said he would wake me at 12. Which I thought was weird, especially because I already had my one birthday gift, a purse I had picked out myself. So I told him he had better not wake me up without at least giving me a card (to which he asked me if we had any blank cards in the house he could write in...)

I fell asleep around 11 and, lo and behold, an hour later, he turned on the lights and the radio in our bedroom and yelled, "Happy birthday!" Then he handed me my Christmas stocking (yeah, I'm not sure of the connection, either...) and told me to open it. Inside was a small, wrapped box. And inside the box was an awesome piece of jewelry. For my birthday. From my husband. The husband who told me I could have either a purse or an electric toothbrush for my birthday, but not both, because we need to cut back.

And the story was the best. He remembered how I had mentioned more than a year prior that I had always wanted a certain piece of jewelry. Then he called my sister to talk about it (thanks for giving him the green light, lil sis. Feel free to do that anytime jewelry is involved!) Then he went to four or five stores until he found the exact right thing. And he got the gift on sale (that scores big points with me).

And the best part? He said he was so excited to give me the gift that that's why he stayed up until midnight and then woke me up. Because he didn't want to wait until the morning to see my reaction. I mean, who needs jewelry when your husband is so awesome? (Although, don't get me wrong, the jewelry is pretty nice, too...)