Birthday gifts

Have you ever read this book?

If not I highly recommend it.  It breaks down how we feel and express love into 5 different categories or love languages. 

• Words of affirmation
• Receiving gifts
• Quality time
• Acts of Service
• Physical touch

I had a hard time picking out my "love language" or how I most feel loved. After taking the test online to determine my love languages it was a mix between words of affirmation, service, and quality time.  Luckily for Jeff receiving gifts is not high on my list.  Jeff does a great job speaking various love languages, but giving gifts is not his forte.  I will give him credit for bringing me flowers a couple times a year for no reason.  But other than that giving gifts is not an easy love language for him or one that he uses often.

Since I know how hard picking out a gift is for him, when he does I know he REALLY, REALLY, REALLY loves me. (He told me if I wanted something with airplanes on it, getting me a gift would be much easier.)

One year he went to buy me a wallet for my birthday and spent at least an hour AGONIZING over what wallet to buy and which style I might like.  Not wanting to get the wrong one he buys 3 and lets me choose which one I like best and returns the other 2 later. 
Often as part of a gift for Mother's day or my birthday Jeff wants to make all the meals and let me have a day off.  He doesn't cook much so he always chooses something "simple enough" for him to make.  Last year he was making pancakes and sausage for breakfast.  He warmed up the sausage in the microwave, but must have read the label wrong.  Instead of warming up the precooked sausage for 1 minute, he set the timer for 10 minutes.  A knife couldn't even cut the rock hard sausage.  It was very, very uneatable.  Jeff was so mad a himself for "ruining" his breakfast gift.  Personally I thought it was sweet and endearing. 

So this year when Jeff didn't even ask for a hint for my birthday I didn't expect too much.  I was surprised one day when he came home with a gift several days before my birthday.  He prefaced it with "Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where George buys the cashmere sweater with a red dot??  Well, here is your red dot!!"  He pulls out a black blazer with a security tag STILL FASTENED.   He continues, "I went to the mall to get you a present and didn't know what to get.  I called my mom who said to get a black blazer.  So I bought this at H&M while in Pittsburg Pa and didn't realized the security tag was still attatched until I was packing to catch the plane home.  Since there is no H&M in Colorado I have no way to get it off.  I have been to 3 other department stores this evening before coming home, which by the way is why I'm and hour and a half late, to see if they could remove it without any luck. I ruined your birthday present; I bought you a jacket you can't even wear!"

This story does have a happy ending.  We went looking for a "replacement" black blazer in Colorado, but none I liked as well as the one Jeff picked out at H&M (he did a good job) and they were all more expensive.  So Jeff called his parents in California and they went down the street to H&M and found the exact same blazer he picked out and sent it.  Poor Jeff.  All this work for my birthday present. I know the gift giving love language is hard for him and he HATES shopping, so his gifts are extra special. Thanks, Jeff, for a wonderful gift and a wonderful birthday!

And speaking of special gifts...This boy spent about an hour painting this BEAUTIFUL picture for me.

Thanks for a wonderful birthday!