This year, Jeff’s birthday fell on a Tuesday. It was the day after we arrived home from Texas and Jeff told me he just wanted to stay home that night after work. This is the fourth birthday Jeff has had since we’ve been together and I think I finally got it right.
At 10pm the night before, while Luke and I paced the airport waiting for Jeff to clean 10 days of snow and ice off of the Jeep and try to get it running, I asked myself the right question. Instead of thinking, How can I make this the coolest birthday ever?, I thought, What makes Jeff really happy? I came up with this list:
- A clean apartment
- A good home-cooked meal
- Lingerie
- Manly action movies
- Video games
Several other things came to mind, but I had to limit myself to things that could be incorporated into a night at home.
The next day, I went shopping and bought groceries (including Jeff’s favorite cereal), some of Jeff’s favorite candy and snacks (chocolate-covered raisins, graham crackers, and gold fish pretzels), and, with my Christmas money, The A-Team on DVD/Blu-Ray and a black Classic Wii Controller Pro (another thing that makes Jeff happy is money and I knew he would appreciate the fact that I hadn’t spent any of his birthday budget, which he had other plans for, on these gifts).
Then, I went home and spent a couple of hours unpacking and cleaning our pigsty of an apartment. I made chicken cordon bleu for dinner, per Jeff’s request and put on his favorite skimpy ensemble before he walked in the door.
Jeff opened his gifts (he loved them), we ate dinner, and snuggled up to watch The A-Team. I spent the entire night dressed the way Jeff probably wishes I could/would always dress. He was so happy and thanked me multiple times for a great birthday. It was so simple and yet it was exactly what he wanted. He was happy, so I was too. It really was a great night. And the next morning, I made Jeff’s childhood favorite, breakfast cake. I didn’t have all of the ingredients to make it for his actual birthday breakfast, but I don't think he minded extending his birthday celebration to the following morning.
I think Jeff also appreciated the fact that I only made him smile for one picture on his birthday.
Wonderful, brilliant, handsome, strong, loving, capable, understanding, thoughtful, talented, sexy, fun, hard-working, self-sacrificing, dependable ... those are the words I wrote to describe Jeff in his card and I meant every single one of them. I don't know how I got so lucky. I love you, Jeff!
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