Creating Memories That Last a Lifetime

Creating Memories That Last a Lifetime

A friend shared this story with me.

Growing up my husbands family never celebrated the holidays, to the point where my husband spent the Thanksgiving before we met sitting in his room eating a Swanson Turkey dinner. The only Christmas decorations in his home were the ones he put up in his own room. There were no gifts, not for as long as he can remember, probably since he was about 11. In my family on the other hand we celebrate every holiday with our extended family and with many decorations and a lot of happiness and laughter. I decided it was important for me to give him some happy holiday memories. Our first Christmas together was a flop. I was pregnant with our daughter and moody and miserable and we were broke we tried to make the best of it however and he said he enjoyed every minute of it. I however was depressed and unhappy because I couldn't do more for him. This past Christmas I was determined that I would make it the most spectacular holiday ever for him. I started saving for Christmas in June. His favorite part of the entire holiday season is shopping for our three kids so I decided he was going to spend every dime he cared to! I found out I was pregnant with our fourth child in July and had to quit my job so there went my savings plan! As the holidays got closer I started to get sadder and sadder that yet another year would go by without my making his holidays spectacular. As it got to be December we started our shopping with pitifully little to spend on the kids. I decided to make up for it by going on a baking and decorating frenzy. He got caught up in it too and I felt a little better. It wasn't the same shopping frenzy I planned to let him indulge in but I felt that the family time we were spending was more important and so did he. Finally Christmas Eve arrived. We spent half the night wrapping and talking and I told him how bad I felt that so many presents he wanted to get the children couldn't be bought. He assured me that it didn't matter that someday we would have the money to spoil them rotten the way he wants to. He said the non purchased memories were even better. We went to bed that night and I was still feeling a little sad knowing that his faverite hope, that of seeing their faces light up looking on a flood of presents would be denied again. In the morning we woke to the kids squealing and giggling for us to get up. We got up and made our way to the living room and when I got there I was shocked! The entire room was filled with packages. We could hardly walk through to the couch. I turned to Tom and he was grinning from ear to ear. He just looked at me and smiled and said you aren't the only one who can hide away money for a rainy day. That night after all the visiting and assembling we sat in the middle of our trashed living room and talked about the day. I asked him why he didn't tell me and he said that the money and the presents were nice but that this holiday was made better by all the loving and baking and decorating we did and he wanted this to be a surprise for me as well as the children to say thank you for giving him the best holiday memory ever.