My husband Pat and I have been married for 20 years and they have been a very good two decades. When we were first married, he didn't spend much time thinking about gifts and surprises. For example, one time he gave me a Christmas present..."wrapped" in the bag from the store. Then there was the matter of clothing size. In the bag was a warm-up suit: SIZE LARGE. If your wife hasn't reached size large yet and you give her a large-size item of clothing, whe will interpret this as "I don't see you as a petite little flower!" It doesn't engender the happiest of emotions.
The Man
Somewhere along the line, Pat realized putting thought into gifts can reap
rewards and his modus of gift-giving is often a vacation getaway. He started by planning a surprise birthday party for my 30th and has since stepped up his game. For our 15th anniversary, he secretly planned a surprise destination celebration for us - all I did was pack my bags. We landed in Las Vegas and went to the
Venitian Hotel. This all-suite hotel is quite luxurious but the biggest gift was he also surprised me by inviting 10 friends (that had been at our wedding) to fly to Vegas to spend the weekend with us. It was truly special and he said "all the husbands told him they hated him" because it was so thoughtful - now they had to get more creative.
He rode on those laurels for quite some time
The Venetian
When our 20th rolled around, Pat decided to plan another special getaway. When I offered suggesions of where I would like to go, he informed me "You are on a 'need to know' basis." He did ask if I preferred warm or cold weather and I said "definitely warm". So the day before our late September departure, he told me the weather forecast "Strong possibility of rain for 2 of the 4 days; highs in the upper 50s, lows in the 30s and 40s." I thought he had to be joking and thought "don't forget to pack your bathing suit!"
We arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; he was able to prevent me from finding out our destination. He used his
Delta Platinum flier status (tons of work travel), to work with the airline personnel to hide our flight info and the security guard agreed to not spill the beans when he gave her both our boarding passes. After a giddy half hour in the Sky Room (formerly known as the Crown Room), he herded me out to find our gate. He roamed to a gate departing for Seattle, then dragged me to Cancun counter (yeah!) but we finally arrived at a gate that read:
DENVER.
Denver? "Are we really going to Denver?" I asked. My mind was whirling with thoughts...
There aren't sandy beaches in Denver! Are we having a reunion with his University of Colorado buddies at a football game? What in the heck - what about WARM? Don't get me wrong - I
love Denver and have visited many times. I was just prepared to slather on sun screen.
The view from our car day one - yes, it started snowing
The weather on landing could only be described as miserable. I tried to be jovial but I was had a little trouble with pouting.
